


Cute Girls in Space

by Pantscada



Series: Cute Girls in Space [1]
Category: Original - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Asexual Character, Baseball, Bisexual Character, Cute, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff, Found Family, Gay, Gen, Lesbian Character, Lesbians in Space, Multi, Other, Outer Space, Pansexual Character, Romance, Science Fiction, Slice of Life, Trans Character, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28857252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pantscada/pseuds/Pantscada
Summary: Captain Anam Misra has finally started the journey through space that she had always dreamed of, finally free from the clutches of the largest corporation in the galaxy. Months on an unregistered starship, and her attempts at gathering a crew to run it have summed up only three other people: Lieutenant Mint Akarui, weapons and tech expert, Doctor Veirence Hashir, PhD in being a professional sweetheart, and Commander Lia, a mysteriously sentient android from Earth.The four of them form the crew of the RSS Argo, cruising through the galaxy, falling in love, and getting into trouble with pirates, corporations, and... something else?
Series: Cute Girls in Space [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116152
Kudos: 3





	1. 000: Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is a series I have been working on since about October 2019 and I am very excited to share it with people. Well, excited, but also horrified. Don't expect anything amazing, but do expect a passion project filled with nothing but love put into it. It is an episodic series, and will be split into series/seasons/arcs/books or whatever you want to call them. The first series is 11 episodes, consisting of two two-parters. Also, eventually every episode will have an illustration! For now, just the first one. The art is by @sir_chompsky on IG!
> 
> Okay, I hope you enjoy this first series of Cute Girls in Space!

It is the year 2199 and humanity has long-since unlocked the ability to travel through space faster than light. A discovery that has jump-started a new age of planetary colonization, terraforming, and voyages across the cosmos. Most colonies and starships are run and managed under the Intergalactic Alliance, a separatist party who have put all of their influence into branching out amongst the galaxy. Earth is a near-utopia and has spawned its own organization, the Terran Conglomerate, who are loyal to Earth and against the overcolonization of the Milky Way for fear of what kind of unwanted attention it may draw from beyond humanity’s reach. The two forces often dispute, and many amongst the general public fear a war may be brewing, or that one has already started beneath that thin veil of peace.

This story isn't about these forces, though. Somewhere, orbiting a planet, or perhaps docked at a space station, is a rogue ship housing a small crew sailing along the galaxy’s Orion Arm aboard the RSS Argo. Exploring the stars or just exploring trouble, no matter what this group are up to, it could never be anything good. 


	2. 001: Argo

The moment the fist meets her gut, she’s in her element. A grin spreads across her face as she hunches over before her attacker. She drops low to sweep his legs out, but he’s quick to drag her down with him, causing both of them to land awkwardly and scrape their skin along the rough concrete. Rolling backward, the two get to their feet and trade quick blows, bruised and bloody from precision strikes. The woman manages to hit him three times in the ribs, sidestepping and ducking under a few of his strikes while powering through the ones she doesn’t. She takes the opening to deliver a swift but powerful uppercut that knocks the man down like a sack of bricks, his head bouncing off of the concrete with an aching thud. The woman stands over him and crouches down to grip his shirt collar, shooting a bloodied smile before delivering a lightning-fast fist to his already broken and half-conscious face. She stands up straight and brushes herself off as she scans the surrounding area, ensuring the way is clear.

“Lia, I need into the ship, I’m heading your way,” Her breath is short.

“Extending the ramp now, Captain. What is the status on your health?”

“A bit fucked up, but I’ll be fine. Nothing Dr. Hashir can’t fix, I hope.”

Though it was night, the white moon above reflects the binary suns down brightly enough that it could pass as morning time on any other planet. The streets of this part of the city are lined with warehouses and large trucks meant to transport goods. Landing pads for cargo ships are located further down the street, where items are to be imported and exported from planet to planet. Most of these pads are vacant, as it was currently off-hours at the site. Any ships still here are currently empty of personnel, however full of cargo. Ripe for any criminals to try and steal, _ if _ they could get through a ship’s security systems. One of these ships, however, had its lights on, its crew inside, and its boarding ramp extended.

“Not so fast, thief.” A broad figure wearing black leathers steps out from the shadows and in front of the ramp, stopping the exhausted Captain in her tracks.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Her sigh becomes exhausted panting, “I really don’t have time for your bullshit. Just…” She makes dismissive a gesture at the man.

The man smirks, cracking his knuckles as he takes a step forward. “End of the line for you, sorry to say.” But before he can take another step, a sharp gasp bleeds between his clenched teeth and he lurches forward as a blade sinks into his back. His eyes quickly flutter shut as he topples over before the Captain. Behind where the man was she sees a short-haired woman pulling out a bloodied knife.

“Lieutenant Mint fucking Akarui, thank fuck,” The weakened Captain smiles and stands straighter, resuming her journey toward the shining silver ramp as she pauses to glance down at the body. “Is he…?”

Mint crouches down to clean off her knife on the unconscious man’s shirt. “He’s alive, just asleep,” She quietly replies, before putting the knife back into her pocket and turning to the ramp.

“Yeah, okay, just let me catch my breath… I fought, like… four...” before she could finish her sentence, the Captain’s words drop off, and her body is soon to follow. She nearly joins the man on the ground just before a pair of swift hands extend out beneath her collapsing form.

“--We must take her to the doctor.” Lia’s eyes focus on the Captain, whose blood runs from her nose and onto Lia’s paperwhite skin.

Mint rushes beside Lia to help carry the Captain on board the ship, taking her up the ramp and indoors. 

Lia pushes a button on the wall in the corridor leading into the main corridor of the ship, speaking into the intercom. “Doctor, we have the Captain. She is unconscious and we are taking her to you. Please prepare.”

In the medical bay, Dr. Veirence Hashir prepares the room for examination. Its light-colored walls are hidden in shadow, due to the dim lights meant to ease eye strain during prolonged work. There is an assortment of beds along the back wall, and a table near the middle cleared off for the incoming patient with a tray of tools beside it consisting of an advanced healing cloth, hypos, and miscellaneous medications. "Just set her down here, I'll take a look at her and talk to her when she wakes up.” The doctor shortly gets to work, checking the Captain’s eyes and doing the usual tests.

“Ow.” A sound comes from the patient, and Veirence’s attention is directed back toward the Captain’s face.

“Good, you’re awake,” Veirence lets her hands off of the Captain’s ribs as she sits up, evidently ready to leave. "Oh, no no no," the doctor moves the Captain back onto the table. "You're badly hurt. Let me take care of you and then we can think about what to do next, okay?"

The Captain rolls her eyes and sighs. "Yeah, yeah, alright, stick me with your needles or what have you," She lays back down with a groan of pain.

“Not going to use needles,” Veirence gathers her equipment, beginning to work on the damaged Captain. “Well, not many.” But is interrupted by Lia’s voice coming over the intercom. 

“Pardon me, doctor, but there is a ship attempting to contact us. If the Captain is conscious, we will need her should the situation become unfavorable.”

“I’m patching her up right now,” Veirence responds, “It’ll have to wai--”

Halfway through wrapping a healing cloth around the Captain’s ribs, she leaps off the table again, heading off to the bridge.“Well, that’s my cue, doc. I’m sure the local gang isn’t exactly happy that we stole their shit, so I ought to go...” She leaves Veirence with a handful of cloth, heading off to the bridge and plopping herself into the Captain’s chair with Lia and Mint beside her facing consoles against the walls of the bridge. “What are they saying, Lia?” she grips her side and winces a little.

“They are saying we are ‘scum’ and want to speak with us from their own ship, the MOV Finem Fabula.”

“Okay, put them up.” The display comes up showing a group of people wearing biker leathers, in front of them a large angry-looking woman.

“Alright you thieves, you’re going to give us back our weapons core before you find out what happens when my fist meets your face!” She screams.

“This is Captain Anam Misra of the RSS Argo,” She smirks to herself at the threat. “State your official business and  _ maybe _ I’ll think about giving you this weapons core that, let’s be honest, I don’t even have.” She snickers.

“Every lie you tell is another bone of your crew broken, Misra,” The gang’s leader pauses for a second. “I’m Zanatha Kaine of the MOV Finem Fabula, you have 20 minutes to return our weapons core before we blow your puny ship to smithereens.”

“You got it, I’ll figure something out in that time. See you in a bit, Zanatha, cheers.” Anam does a two-finger salute as the communication screen shuts down. “Alright, Lieutenant, where’s the core?”

Mint swivels around, holding a small computer chip in between her fingers with a confused look on her face.

“Don’t worry, we didn’t just risk our lives to hand it back to them on the first sign of trouble,” She looks over to her right. “Lia, we’re going into orbit. Once we’re there I need you to start charging the starsail drive. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep them distracted so we’ll be gone before they can say ‘Fuck you, Anam Misra.’ Once they’re charged, we head into deep space so they can’t find us,”

“Roger that, Captain.”

“And, go.” At the word, the Argo’s landing gears retract and the ship’s atmospheric engines rev up as it begins to lift off of the landing pad, quickly accelerating upward toward the stars. Noticing this, the Finem Fabula shortly follows suit, firing a barrage of what are either warning shots or poorly aimed cannon fire as the two ships careen through the quickly thinning atmosphere of the planet.

Once in orbit, the communications relay on the Argo goes off again. “It’s from the Finem Fabula, Captain.” Lia reports.

“Well, they’re not shooting at us anymore. Open it, I guess,”

Before the screen even comes on, shouting comes from the speakers on board. “MISRA, SINCE I’M SUCH A NICE PERSON, I’M GIVING YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO HAND OVER THAT CORE, NOW!”

“Ah, Zanatha. Well, I just figured that it would be easier in zero gravity to just float over the core to you instead of possibly dropping it on the ground. It’s a fragile thing, you know? Also, I don’t have the core, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Starsail at 46%, Captain.” Lia whispers.

A loud growl comes from Zanatha. “Fine. I’ll open up my hangar doors and ready a crew member--” She turns around to face someone behind her. “O’Dala, go to the hangar with a suit, prepare to receive cargo--” she then faces the screen again. “Our weapons are hot, so don’t try and pull anything funny or your crew member will become a fine red mist in the blink of an eye.”

“Of course. Lieutenant, you know what to do.”

Mint’s eyes widen in concern, but remembers that Anam  _ probably  _ has a plan for this anyway, leaving her station to walk down the corridor, letting the bridge doors close behind her, then heading into the storage room nearby rather than to grab a suit and exit the ship.

Outside of the Finem Fabula, a suited figure sits awaiting a package that would not come. As the crew of the ship looks on at where the Argo once was, a streak of light appears, heading out into deep space.

“Great job, you guys,” the onboard intercom speaks. “And doctor, sorry for up and leaving. I’ll… come back before I pass out again,” the speaker clicks off, and Anam sits up from the Captain’s chair.

“They should not be able to track us, Captain. We are out of range of any major systems.” Lia comments with a slight smile.

“Heh, yeah, it’s a fun technique. Friend in the Alliance taught me. Simple, but effective.” the Captain smiles back.

“Excuse me, Captain...” Veirence patiently smiles at Anam from the doorway of the bridge.

“Ah, right…” Anam chuckles, rubbing the back of her head as she gets up to leave, then looks back at the bridge before she walks off with Veirence. “You’re all dismissed, so go and get some rest, you all did great today,” She smiles at the crew, giving a thumbs up as she limps down the corridor and finally into the medical bay to get treated for her wounds.


	3. 002: Hiccups in Neutral Space

“Ah, Station Centauros! A particular favorite of mine. Surprised I haven’t shown you guys this place before. Used to go here all the time.” Anam stretches her arms out upon exiting the doors of the Argo and into the expansive space station ahead. “Like usual, just do whatever, don’t get into  _ too  _ much trouble. I’ll be at the job listings if you need me,”

Before the crew is a large space station whose docking bay expands into large branching corridors, its walls lined with small buildings and shops, whose bright neon glows contrast the darkness of the walls and walkways. There are small alleyways and service tunnels that interweave the larger sections, and even these nooks are large enough to house several, more illicit storefronts out of sight of potential law enforcement. Veirence takes it upon herself to walk off down one of the main streets, eyes glancing to the sides as she searches the alleyways. Lia notices this and quickly catches up to her. “What is it you are searching for, Doctor?”

Veirence is a little surprised by Lia’s unexpected appearance. “Oh, just the usual.”

Lia takes a moment to think, then she blinks and smiles. “Ah, yes! May I join you?”

Veirence smiles at the wide-eyed girl. “Yeah, sure!”

“Thank you! I am interested to see what it is like!”

Veirence raises an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? You interested in getting into it yourself?” The two eventually reach a smaller alleyway down flooded with dark red lights and a smokey haze veiling the entrance. Veirence takes a deep breath of the incense.

“It is not something that seems particularly dangerous, especially so if our own doctor does it, so I think I may be interested at some point!”

“Not today, though? No worries, I can show you some of the basics,” But before she can take two steps, she feels a tap on her shoulder. As she turns around she looks into the calm, yet enraged eyes of her Captain, bearing a crooked smile. 

“I  _ know _ you aren’t trying to turn Lia into a prostitute, doctor,” She calmly states, though through gritted teeth.

Veirence takes a step back, startled by the Captain’s sudden, and frightening, appearance. “W-what? I’m just… showing her around…” She scratches the back of her head nervously.

“Well, I think she’s just about seen enough. Come on, Lia.” she grabs Lia’s hand, lightly pulling her away from the scene.

“Oh, of course, Captain!” Lia smiles at her, then looks to Veirence. “Farewell, doctor!” She smiles and waves at the shaken Veirence as the two of them stumble onto the main street.

“Luckily I was going this way and just so happened to see Dr. Hashir, who was expected, but you, too? Who knows what she would have done to you if I hadn’t been there,” Anam breathes a sigh of relief.

After a moment of walking, Anam and Lia both reach a vast array of holographic boards with an assortment of small groups of people around them, the sound of their impatient heavy boots against the metal grated floor. These glowing boards present lists varying from crew requests, news updates, and several missions for vagrant crews to journey upon, ranging from the elimination of pirates to simply delivering cargo from one place to another. The crew of the Argo has generally decided upon sticking to less risky requests as the ship has no weapon systems installed or skilled physical combatants aside from the Captain and Lieutenant Akarui.

“Christ, even after all this time, that girl who saved Outreach is still refusing interviews,” Anam peers at the list of news articles. “If I were as skilled an engineer as she is, I’d want to get my name out there!” She boasts.

“Outreach?” Lia gives a blank look for a moment. “I recall even though she has not disclosed what methods she used to stop the singularity reactor’s overload, Intergalactic Alliance researchers have determined she simply used a reserve coolant cell from a neighboring, unused device.” Beams the woman.

“Well, I think the whole ‘Her saving the one city saved the whole planet’ shtick is just blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Like, sure, if it actually went off it might have destroyed the entire town and turned it into a smoking crater, but there’s no way it’d destroy the whole planet,” Anam scoffs.

“The city of Hazawa Springs is known to be an agricultural cornerstone to the Intergalactic Alliance’s colonies. While it physically would not have destroyed the planet, it would have severely crippled the economy to an irrecoverable low-point, thus, in a way ‘destroying’ it, at least in the eyes of the IGA. But because of Ms. Moon, the catastrophe was avoided and she became a renowned hero.”

Anam pats Lia’s head. “You’re a real smarty pants, you know that? Actually, what am I saying? You’re a real smarty pants, of course you know that,” She returns her attention to the board. “Anyway, I was going to say I thought it was weird she hasn’t been forced to work for the Alliance yet, seems like something they would do,”

“Perhaps she is just very strong-willed. If someone truly does not want to do something, then they will not do it, even if offered the world,” Lia states.

Anam nods. “I guess, though sometimes they like to just straight up kidnap people and force them to work for them, at least that’s what I’ve heard,” She steps over to one of the bounty boards and reads through them, applying search filters and other things to narrow down her results. “We’re kind of running a skeleton crew at the moment, and we need a mechanic,” She chuckles. “Maybe we can recruit that girl, would be a hell of a get.”

“Statistically highly unlikely, Captain. She seems to want to avoid any contact from off-planet if she can help it, let alone joining an unaffiliated crew. Additionally, we do not possess the funding to put out another recruitment message, let alone one that would specifically ask for her services.”

“Just a joke, Lia. Obviously we won’t get the most skilled mechanic in the galaxy,” Anam, after accepting several requests, begins to head toward the trading bay with a bag full of miscellaneous items at her side to any vendors who would accept them.

“A joke, yes, I see.” Lia scratches the back of her head in embarrassment. “Apologies, I should have detected the tone.”

“Heh, don’t worry about it. I was only really half joking anyway, we do need a mechanic on board… not sure why that wasn’t my first priority, actually.” She shrugs. “Eh, I guess my amateur skills are good enough for now.”

As they arrive at the vendors, Anam sets down her heavy bag on a counter and immediately begins assailing the poor merchant with questions and haggling methods not even seen by the most professional of hagglers. While this is occurring, Lia wanders off to sate her never-ending curiosity, observing the various wares on display along the walls of the large station corridors. Items ranging from food, clothes, pottery, weapons, and more. Among these shops, specifically a weapons shop, Lia spots a familiar figure and walks over to her. “Hello, Lieutenant!”

Startled, Mint nearly drops the handful of various blades and firearms that she evidently had planned to purchase. “Ah! Um...” She laughs nervously, bending down to pick up the things she had dropped from Lia’s sudden appearance.

“What are you doing?”

Mint looks down at her small collection and quickly packs them into her bag before another outside force causes them to topple to the ground. “Just… shopping.”

“I see! That is very interesting!”

“Hey, you two!” Anam walks up to them. “Doing some shopping I see?”

Mint and Lia turn to face Anam as she approaches, Mint giving a nod in response.

“Hello, Captain! I do not have any desire to purchase material goods today.”

“Then whatcha doin? Just chatting with the lieutenant?”

“I am surveying, as usual.”

“Surveying again, eh? Why do I get the feeling that’s your way of saying you’re just wandering aimlessly? You don’t always have to act like you’re busy, commander. It’s alright to say you’re just hanging about,” Anam gives a caring smirk at Lia, who in turn looks blankly as she attempts to process this criticism. A moment passes, and Anam furrows a brow in confusion. “Uh… Lia?” She waves her hand in front of Lia’s face with no response. “Uh… Akarui, did you do something to her before I got here?”

Mint shakes her head. “No, sir,”

Anam swears under her breath. “Okay, shit, I’m sure she’ll be alright. We can figure something out.” She thinks for a moment. “Go get your girlfriend and meet us on the ship.”

“I--” Mint blushes and sighs begrudgingly. “Yes, sir,” And as she heads toward the direction of Veirence’s known location, Anam tries her best to try and move the inanimate Lia toward the ship. First, trying to simply take her hand to pull her along, but as that was left with no results, the Captain attempts to push her from the back. Still no movement.

“Okay…” Anam mumbles to herself. “Guess I’ll have to do this the hard way,” And with that, she grunts with effort as she tries to pick up Lia’s frozen form, but is surprised to find that even though she’s made mostly of metal and electronics, she’s surprisingly light. A few odd looks shoot Anam’s way from people as she hauls around an entire stiff person on her shoulders, eventually making her way aboard the Argo, setting Lia down onto the bridge to examine Lia’s condition.

All the while Mint discovers the red alley on her journey where she figures Veirence would most likely be. Through the incense-ridden smog, she squints her eyes to try and spot out the doctor.  _ ‘She should be around here…’  _ Mint thinks to herself, scanning the parts of the alley that don’t have small incense or “toy” vendors occupied by them.

“Hey there, Leaf, looking for someone?” A warm voice blankets over Mint’s anxious mind as she turns around to see the doctor herself.

“Oh, Vei,” Mint sighs with relief, smiling and relaxing her shoulders. “Come on, the Captain says we have to go back to the ship. Something’s up with Lia.”

Veirence’s smile contorts into a concerned expression. “What’s wrong with her?” She asks, turning around with Mint as the two begin walking down the main corridors of the station.

“Dunno, I think Captain Misra may have said something and she just kinda froze up,”

“Froze up how?” Veirence tilts her head at Mint, putting her hands in her pockets.

“Like, she’s totally motionless. Like she’s paralyzed or something.”

“Well, let’s hope it’s nothing major.”

The two of them arrive at the starboard airlock of the Argo, and Veirence turns on the intercom. “Cap, we’re here.”

“Come to the bridge,” Anam replies before the intercom goes off. Soon enough the doors to the inside would slide open as Veirence and Mint walk inside toward the bow, which, upon opening the doors would see a nervous Anam pacing by a still-frozen Lia.

“Any updates?” Veirence asks as she steps toward Lia, beginning to examine her.

“No, she’s been stuck like this since a couple of minutes ago,”

Veirence glances over at Anam. “What did you say to her, if that’s what caused this?”

Anam taps her chin to try to remember. “Well, I asked her what she was doing, she said she was ‘surveying’, which is what she usually says when she wanders around aimlessly. I gave her some advice that she doesn’t always have to act busy, and then...” She gestures at Lia.

“Okay, I’m not really a robotics or AI expert, but I think Mint might know some things, right?” Veirence crosses her arms and raises an expectant eyebrow at the blonde.

“...I don’t know what kind of software she runs. There’s always turning her off and on again, though,” Mint shrugs.

Anam waves her hand in front of Lia’s face. “Liaaaaa?  _ Please _ don’t be crashed or something--”

Lia’s eyes blink and she looks over to Anam curiously. “Yes, Captain?” 

Anam’s eyes light up and a huge smile crosses her face as she tightly embraces the girl. “Oh, god, Lia.” Her eyes closed tightly. “Don’t fuckin’ scare me like that,”

“I am not sure what you mean, was my question frightening?” Lia doesn’t react to the hug. “I thought about what you said, Captain,” She explains. “And I do suppose it would be sufficient to simply state the truth rather than act as if I am doing something else to seem more busy so as to please you.”

“Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to be frozen,”

“Do not apologize, Captain. I am not one to take criticism very often, but I appreciate that you care enough about me to give such criticisms.” Lia smiles.

“Is there some manual or something for you that we can use in case something actually happens to you?”

“Any documentation on my make and model would be at Aussichtsturm Kendlmühlfilzen Geavanceerde automatische testfaciliteit,” Lia informs. “However…”

“...Yeah,” Anam’s face upturns. “Shit… but, I guess it would be worth a shot anyway, if you think we could, I mean, if you want.”

“I… would rather not revisit the site any time soon.”

“That’s alright. Just do what you can to help us troubleshoot if anything goes wrong, alright?”

“I will do what I can, Captain. I should have some light guides in my memory, if you would like those posted somewhere.” Lia affirms.

“That would be great, yes,”

Veirence interjects. “The documentation would be where, Lia?”

“Forget about it, doctor. Just get to your station, we’re heading out.”

“Alright then,” Confused by the discussion, but understands she shouldn’t press on, Veirence leaves the bridge, the sound of the sliding doors and the beeps of the computers filling the air as the crew take their seats. At Anam’s word, the Argo disengages from the station several miles out before dispersing into a streak of light.


	4. 003: Raincoats and Radios

Navanha is a small temperate terra, and a planet lush with archipelagos. Many of which host islands that are very tropical, such as the larger island that the Argo has landed at; vast stretches of sandy beaches lined with luscious verdant trees. This generally means that when it’s not bright, sunny, and beautiful, a large storm is threatening the foundations of any and all buildings established in the immediate area. Stepping off of the ship, the crew all look dressed for a day at the beach, each of them with a hefty bag on their back filled with equipment. Anam turns around to face the crew, clapping her hands. “Alright, everyone, this place is really prone to huge storms, so get all your sun-bathing or whatever done before we have to book it to one of the shelters. You’ve got your bags with raincoats and radios and whatever else you’ll need including sleeping bags for everyone, just in case shit hits the fan for a  _ particularly _ long while. Everyone got it?”

Veirence raises her hand. “Nope.”

Anam rolls her eyes and sighs. “Yes?”

“Where are the shelters?”

“There’s a positioning device in your bag that should give a layout of the colony, probably. There’s a shelter to the north and south sides of the town,” She gestures with her thumbs to the assortment of buildings in the jungle-like area not far from the beach itself. “So, you know, when--  _ if _ a big storm hits, just head to whichever one is closest. They’re not hard to miss; big concrete structures stand out well against the greenery, plus they’ve got big lightning rod arrays on the top that go way above the trees that help power the town, so just look for a big spiky grey building and that’ll be it. Any more questions?”

The two other crew members either shrug or don’t respond, or, in Lia’s case, simply say “No questions from me, Captain!”

“Good. Now, go have fun! If you need me, just use the radio.” She pats the radio hooked onto her belt. She and Veirence head to the lightly populated glaring white sand beach currently under heavy bombardment of the radioactive wrath of two overhead suns. Perfect sunbathing conditions. All the while, Lia and Mint go the opposite direction into the town.

“Do you think a storm will hit, Lieutenant?” Lia queries.

Mint looks up at a clear sky as the two walk along the path through the commuting townsfolk and simply shrugs.

“Very insightful! The forecast is quite unpredictable on this planet, so my sensors are not reliable at the moment. We will have to rely on our eyes and ears, and noses!” Lia smiles at Mint, though the other girl doesn’t seem too interested.

Some hours later as the suns are lower in the sky, Anam’s rest is disturbed with the sudden and loud rumbling of thunder. Her dark eyes open to see a wall of even darker storm clouds cast over the vibrant ocean. She nudges Veirence beside her and notices the denizens that had numbered the beach had disappeared. “Doc, might want to wake up,”

Veirence shudders awake, quickly sitting up and looking over at Anam, then over to the cascade of near-pitch clouds threatening the sky. “Uhh… that’s...” She looks at the Captain as she gets to her feet, gathering her things alongside Anam as the two quickly put on their raincoats. “Okay, where’s the nearest bunker?”

Anam holds up a ‘wait’ finger to Veirence, then grabs her radio and turning it on. “Alright guys, a huge storm is about to hit so I need everyone to meet up at the town center so we can make checks on equipment before it hits,” She signals at Veirence to follow her and the two start walking toward the town.

“Captain, I am not sure we will be able to meet up--” Lia’s voice crackles through Anam’s radio. “The storm is approaching extremely quickly--”

Anam and Veirence look behind them expecting to see the clouds still miles away, but instead see that the sky had become completely black as streaks of lightning arc across the billows. With hardly a sprinkle of warning, a downpour pelts through the leaves of the overhead trees, and sight becomes almost immediately restricted with the darkness of the sky paired with the fog brought from the rain. “Right,” Anam screams into her radio as she shields herself from the assailing torrent. “We need to head to the bunkers  _ immediately. _ Everyone head to whichever bunker is closest, do  _ not  _ go to the town center,”

“Captain?” Veirence yells out into the storm as she loses sight of Anam through the haze. “Captain?”

Anam looks behind her to check if Veirence was still behind her, but upon seeing nobody there, dread overcomes her. “Shit,” She scowls. “Doctor?” Her voice raises as she scans across the environment, though still determined in moving toward the bunker.

“Sir?” A figure comes out of the haze toward Anam, moving quickly toward her. “Thank fuck,” Mint reveals herself to the Captain and stays near her so as to not lose sight of her.

“Akarui,” As the two meet, they shortly arrive at the bunker, Anam opening the heavy metal door, letting them both inside as the sounds of the storm quickly silence with the closing of the door. “I thought you were with Lia, where is she?” Her voice lowers as she can now actually hear herself.

Between laden breaths, Mint begins to put her unneeded equipment in her bag. “I’m sorry,” She takes a seat on an unpopulated bench along the side of the wall. “I lost her in the storm.” She brushes her sopping hair back and looks at Anam. “Where’s Veirence?”

As the wind gets more and more forceful, sight becomes nearly impossible for Veirence. Her coat flutters wildly, flinging her hood off of her head, leaving her platinum hair exposed to the vicious element. She stumbles through the downpour, shielding herself with her arm as best as she can, realizing that in the depths of the storm there is no way for the radio transmissions to reach anyone, whether they be outside or otherwise. Her feet drag along the town’s path as she fights the wind, passing buildings that through the darkness she only knows are there because  _ something  _ has to be making the sound of debris smashing against hardwood and concrete. She decides to head into one of the inevitably vacant buildings for a moment of relative peace before going out to the storm again to search for the shelters. The doors are quite sturdy, and most things inside are still intact. A couple of loose objects on shelves had fallen over and onto the ground, and among the sounds of the storm are the unending creaks and moans of the wood and foundations trying so desperately to keep the building in one piece. Safe, for now.

As the large metal door croaks shut behind Lia, the noise from the storm outside quickly disappears and is replaced with light chatter. She looks at the groups of citizens before her, unable to locate any of her fellow crewmates. Grabbing the radio and flipping her hood down, she turns it on. “This is Commander Lia checking in. If anyone is receiving this, please respond.”

“Hey, she’ll be okay.” Anam sits beside Mint to comfort her as the lieutenant shifts around, constantly pulling at the strings and other loose bits hanging off of her raincoat to try to sate her anxiety. “I’m sure she--” The crackle of the radio interrupts Anam with the sound of a familiar voice. Her heart fills with relief as she answers. “This is Captain Misra, I’m in one of the bunkers with Lieutenant Akarui, do you have Doctor Hashir with you?”

“Negative, Captain. I am the only one of our crew in this bunker.”

Upon hearing the confirmation that Veirence is definitely out there, Mint closes further in on herself, her eyes squeeze shut as she tries to internally deny that Veirence’s life could be -- no --  _ is  _ in danger.

“Roger that. It’s too dangerous to go outside to look for her, all we can do is hope she’s okay. Don’t try to leave the bunker, Lia. Misra, out.” Anam then pockets the radio and looks at Mint, who looks worse every time she checks on her. “Akarui,” She reaches out to her, but Mint quickly stands up and heads to the door, beginning to unlock it. “Lieutenant, what the hell do you think you’re doing? You heard what I just said, get away from that door!” Anam gets up to follow her, getting between Mint and the door.

“I’m going to find her,” She utters before the much taller woman interrupts her plan.

“No, you’re not.”

_ ‘I can’t go out there… it’s pitch black,’  _ Veirence glances outside to view the flashing sky, what little of it she could see beyond the trees, and dread lays in her mind.  _ ‘There’s no point trying to go out. It’s relatively safe here anyways… but I have a feeling it won’t be for long.’  _ Thunder vibrates the building as she begins looking through the bathroom for a towel of some kind to dry herself off with,then stuff under the door to try to stop it from flooding if only for now.  _ ‘I know there’s nothing out there, but the fact it’s so dark paired with the occasional flashes makes me think i’m going to see something for a split second before it leaps out at me.’ _ She shivers under the towel.  _ ‘I hope Mint and the others are safe. Maybe the storm has an eye, and I can wait for that to make a break for the bunker.’ _

“I need to find her.” Mint clenches her teeth as her eyes begin to water. 

“There’s nothing we can do right now, Akarui. Just--” Anam puts a hand on Mint’s shoulder for a moment and looks her in the eye. “I know what you’re going through. Trust me, it will be okay.” She looks up toward the back end of the shelter. “I want to tell you something that I think will help, come with me.”

“What?” Mint sniffles and her eyes shift up at Anam as the hand leaves her shoulder and the Captain walks past her. Mint looks to Anam, then to the steel door. It’s free now. She could go out right now and save Veirence. Or would it really be too risky? She doesn’t care. She’d risk her life for her. No matter if it goes against what the Captain says. But --

“Lieutenant,” Anam says, a hint of concern traces her voice.

_ ‘...’ _ Mint turns around, wiping a tear from her face as she takes one more look at the door and decides to follow Anam into the door leading to a simple dimly lit bathroom, the door closing behind them. Anam faces her.

“I know it’s not like the current situation, but I think it’s the same feeling.” Anam hesitates. “I wasn’t exactly a smart kid. Not much smarter now than I was back home, honestly. The thing was, you had to be a certain level of smart to work for the IGA. And their workers were the only ones who were allowed to freely go off and on my home planet,”

Mint holds her own arms, taking a small step away from Anam. “You… work for them?”

“I did. Only long enough to get off the planet and get my own ship. I hated it,” Anam sighs. “But it was the only way to get off that hell hole.”

“How?”

“I cheated… in a way,” She smirks. “My sister helped me forge a CV.”

“Your sister?”

“Yeah, Angel. We were sort of a team back then, at least I’d like to think so. She was the brains, and I was the braun.” Anam smiles for a moment, but her face turns down. “She didn’t want to come, when I left. Said she didn’t want to leave mom and dad alone. I felt betrayed, lost. I--  _ we _ had finally reached our goal, but at the last moment she just… didn’t.” She stays silent for a beat. “That was years ago, though. Who knows, maybe they finally let people off-planet and she’s out there, somewhere.”

“You haven’t talked to her?”

Anam scratches her head. “Yeah... about that… I wasn’t exactly happy when she told me she wouldn’t come with me. Call it a messy breakup, if you would,”

Mint rubs her arm. “I’m sorry...” She clenches her jaw.

“Don’t worry,” Anam lifts a hand to Mint’s face to wipe a tear. “It might feel like shit now, but she’s alright. You both graduated uni together, right?”

Mint nods.

“See? You two are smart as hell, no way a little storm is gonna kick you over,” Anam pats Mint on thead. “Don’t worry.”

Every time she looks outside she curses herself. The never ending storm, it only makes her lose faith in the situation. This building was about to give way to the flooding.  _ ‘Mint… she must be worried sick.’ _ She rubs her forehead, leaning forward in a chair. Takes a deep breath, and opens her eyes. She starts to hear slow drops where she once expected to hear a monsoon. No wind, where a hurricane was. She quickly gets up and looks at the window with hopeful eyes. There was light and, sure enough, it was calm. The storm wasn’t over, but it was just that: a window. She stumbles at this opportunity, reaching for the door and bolting out, looking up in the sky. It was as if she was in a column of moonlight, the threatening storm surrounding her. It was fast,  _ too  _ fast. There wasn’t much time, but she could make out one of the bunkers in the distance now. She had to move quickly, the storm was already almost back. The wind suddenly picks up as she reaches the metal door, with rain beginning to fall harder and harder by the second. “Please, let me in!” She screams into the intercom. “It’s Veirence Hashir, I need to get in  _ now _ !” she can hardly hear herself over the wind, glancing back she sees debris flying across as the dark clouds cover the sky once again. The door begins to open, and as Veirence peers in, a stinging pain strikes across her leg as a sharp metal piece of debris flies through the air. She yelps in pain, stumbling into the bunker.

“Close the door, she’s in!” A civilian shouts, the door creaking shut.

“Doctor, are you alright?” Veirence looks up to see Lia’s refreshing face.

“I got hit…” She collapses against a wall as several people begin to surround her.

Lia glances at the extreme wound that had struck Veirence. “What happened?”

“It must have been a piece of debris, got me at the last second,” Veirence winces as one of the town’s medical experts rushes toward her pouring wound with a medical kit. “Where’s Mint?”

“Lieutenant Akarui and the Captain are in the other bunker. I will inform them you are here.” Lia takes the radio from her side. “Captain, the doctor is here. She is hurt, I cannot say how bad the wound is.”

Mint looks up at the radio, her smile upon hearing that Veirence was back would quickly disappear from the news of her injury. “Let me talk to her, please,” Desperation fills her tone as she gestures for Anam’s radio. Anam looks at her, then hands her the radio. “Vei? Are you okay? Don’t tell me you were out there,”

“I’ll be okay, I think,” Veirence reels a little as the medic applies a salve to her leg. “It’s nothing serious. A laceration to my thigh, didn’t hit anything--” a prod from one of the tools causes her to gasp. “--vital. Don’t worry about me, Leaf.”

Mint sighs, but smiles knowing Veirence is okay. “Okay. Stay safe, please.”

“‘Course.” Veirence assures. The radio clicks off and Mint hands it back.

As the crew settle down, hours pass until the storm finally disperses. Anam looks at Mint, who had fallen asleep on the hard concrete bench underneath a blanket that the Captain had placed over her earlier.  _ ‘What am I going to do with you…?’  _ She sighs, but gets up to look through the camera in the bunker door. Anam smiles at the sight, then heads over to Mint. “Lieutenant, wake up.”

Mint shifts around under the blanket, slightly opening her eyes to see Anam, as well as a much less populated bunker. “Wha...”

“The storm is over, we should get back to the ship. If you want you can go right back to sleep,”

“Okay...” She sits up, noticing the blanket as it falls away.  _ ‘Did she put this on me?’ _ Mint takes it off, picking up her bag and heading to the door alongside Anam.

“What is the status on your wound, doctor?” Lia asks.

“Feeling better, that’s for sure. Thanks for keeping me company.” Veirence smiles as she stands up, grabbing her radio. “The storm is gone, Cap, what now?”

“Head to the ship. The lieutenant and I are walking there now. Make sure you have everything.”

“Roger that. We’ll see you there.” She puts the radio in her pack, opening the door as she and Lia are some of the last ones to evacuate the shelter. The town before them was ravaged by the storm. Debris littered the streets and trash was scattered across the grass. The Argo had gained some scratches and dents, but the post-rain shine made it relatively easy to find as its silvery sheen catches the eyes of Lia and Veirence, who board and meet up with Anam on the bridge. “Where’s Mint?” Veirence asks.

“Asleep in her quarters. You’d think out of all of us,  _ you’d  _ be the tired one, but it seems you worried her half to death, doctor.” Anam takes a seat in the Captain’s chair, issuing the command to leave orbit.

_ ‘I’ll check on her later… best not to wake her now.’  _ Veirence thinks, simply heading to the medical bay to check up on her wound.

Moments later, the stars enter view and the Argo sets off in a streak of light as soon as it escapes Navanha’s orbit.


	5. 004: The Engine

The Argo sits idle in orbit around a local planet as the crew inside have their hands full making checks on various systems aboard the ship. Mint, on the bridge, is currently testing shields and weapons. In the medical bay, Veirence is assessing the integrity of her many tools and other such equipment, while making sure she is stocked. Lia is syncing the electronics together all the while doing the dusting and other miscellaneous cleanings. In the aft of the ship is a combination of a loading bay and an engineering section. Anam is above the loading bay on a catwalk, manually adjusting systems that need them, and keeping the ones that don’t, in check.

The door on the top deck leading into the room slides open as Lia acknowledges the captain. “Excuse me, captain, I have completed the assessment of the main navigation systems, as well as having cleaned the bridge. Is there anything else you would like me to do?”

“You’re alright, Li, have a break if you want.” Anam glances a smile toward the commander, then quickly faces the consoles again to press a couple of buttons upon a glowing screen.

Lia tilts her head. “Lee, captain? I assure you, my name is Lia. I thought you knew this information?”

Anam chuckles. “It’s just a nickname. I just took the ‘A’ out of your name, cuz it’s shorter.”

Lia pauses for a while, then simply smiles. “Very well, captain. Will you be much longer? Perhaps I could get you something?” She queries.

“It’s fine. I’ll get something la--” A large booming noise and the rattling of the ship’s hull interrupt Anam, and a worried look spreads across her and Lia’s faces. “That’s bad,” The two promptly rush toward the bridge where they find Mint and Veirence who turn to face the captain upon her entry.

“There’s a ship shooting at us. ” Mint reports.

“What? Well, tell them to quit it!” Anam briskly walks over to the captain’s seat and presses a button. “Excuse me, whoever is firing at us, would you please quit it?”

“That was a warning shot.” A voice bellows.

“Warning shot, my arse! You hit us!”

“We’re claiming the bounty on your ship, face the consequences!”

Anam looks perturbed. ‘ _ A bounty? From who, and why? _ ’ She quickly regains her composure. “With that little pea-shooter? Please, we outgun you in every way.” Anam signals Mint.

The person scoffs. “I know ships, and no Axetail comes equipped with weapons. Don’t make me laugh.”

Anam nods at Mint. The Argo turns to face the pirate ship, showcasing to the opposing ship a large cannon built clearly out of scrap parts. Its barrel is glowing red as it reaches full charge, and quickly a beam of energy shoots across the space between them, piercing a section of the ship as it blows off in a fireball, leaving a large chunk of steel floating through space. As the Argo fires, its own shields burst and the lights on board shut off for a moment, and in their place, red emergency lighting. “How’s that for a warning shot?”

The enemy captain grimaces and throws a swear or two. “What!? Rrrrgh… no matter, that won’t stop us. Wait til’ we--” 

“Akarui, ready another blast.” Anam sternly orders, making sure the pirates hear her.

Mint thinks for a moment. That first shot took out the power, there’s no way to fire with only auxiliary. That is,  _ if  _ the weapon is even attached anymore and hadn’t blown itself up. But before she could finish her thought, the pirates speak up again. “Cease! We will return, and we will have that bounty. Consider this your written will!” They then without hesitation turn around with what they have left of their ship and quickly fly away. Anam smirks, but her smile is interrupted by the sound of an explosion from the aft of the ship, this time from the inside.

Anam scrunches her fist and stands up, heading toward the source of the explosion. “Can’t even celebrate a little victory...” She mutters. “With me,” Her hand waves to signal the crew to follow her. 

“Captain, it is possible that the weapon may have drained too much power.” Lia guesses as the crew arrive to see a smoking generator in the top section of the cargo bay. “Perhaps we should have tested it first?”

“Did the job, though, didn’t it?” Veirence pipes in.

“However it seems at a great cost.” Lia comments.

“Yeah, well, hopefully, we can fix this,” Anam sighs as she approaches the machinery. She looks over to Mint. “Lieutenant, there’s a cabinet just over there with tools that we could use to fix this mess. Get me a… screwdriver.”

Mint reaches into the cabinet and hands Anam the requested tool.

“Not exactly my forté,” Anam grabs the screwdriver and twirls it before working. “But we don’t have a mechanic, so we’re going to have to make do with what we’ve got.” She swings open a sparking panel and exhales.

“Is there something we can do, captain?” Lia stands at the ready with a smile.

“Yes, actually,” She turns to face Lia. “What do you know about this kind of generator?”

“It would seem that this is a JagStar 6000SW Power Generator, mainly used to supply power to starships of this size. I will see if I have any information on the subject.” Lia looks down pensively for a while, then blinks and smiles. “I have no data on this!” She cheers.

“Yeah… not exactly something to be excited about. Well, Akarui, looks like you’re going to have to help me out best you can. Lia, Veirence,” Anam gestures downward as a small fire ignites on the control panel before her, quickly blowing it out. “Check some of our supplies to see if we have any spare parts. So far I need one of these,” she hands a couple of miscellaneous pieces of electronics to Veirence. “One of these, and one of these.”

“Oh, uh, okay.” Veirence fakes a smile and walks down to the lower level with Lia. As they approach the miscellaneous boxes of what seems to be random junk, Veirence leans in to whisper to her. “Do you think the captain will be able to fix this?”

“I am sure the captain has experience with many scenarios not unlike this one. She will be able to get us through this.” Lia quietly responds, her eyes fixed on a box full of potentially useful machine parts that she soon begins sorting through by shape and size.

“You sure do trust her a lot,” Veirence digs into various piles of parts.

“Why, yes, of course. She’s my captain.”

“She isn’t perfect, you know.”

Lia smirks at Veirence. “The captain is not perfect, certainly, but I believe she is as close as a human could attain to that status.”

Veirence turns to face Lia with a raised eyebrow. “That’s pretty high praise. What about you?”

“I may be better at remembering things, and I may be physically stronger, among other abilities that I am simply better at compared to any human, however I do not think I can match her personality.”

“Stronger, eh? I wouldn’t let her catch you saying that.” Veirence giggles.

Lia smiles. “Perhaps,” She stands up from a container with an armful of parts. “This will be what they need. The devices match.”

“Yeah, I got some stuff, too. Let’s head back up.” The two climb the metal steps to where both Mint and Anam are crouched down before the once smoking and sparking generator. It’s still smoking, but the sparking has stopped, at least. “Hey, Leaf,” Veirence puts down a pile of parts behind Mint. “We got some parts for ya.”

Mint pushes up her glasses, turning around to sift through the pile that Lia soon adds on to. “Thanks,” She grins as she glances up at Veirence, grabbing a couple of pieces and turning back to the machine with a tool in hand. “Will this fit here?”

Anam takes the part and examines it. “Uh, kinda? Whatever, it’ll have to do for now,” She slots it in along with two other parts. “Alright, now let’s try to turn it on, see if it works.”

“It’s still smoking,” Veirence points out.

“Er, yeah, what do you want me to do, pour a bucket of water on it?” Anam scoffs and flips a switch. There’s a loud POP from the generator, then it stutters for a moment before it hums on as the lights return to normal. Anam smiles.

“I-- is it working?” Mint braces as if something is about to explode.

“That pop was concerning, but it looks good for now, I guess…” Veirence shuffles across the grated flooring.

“I have a feeling that the generator is unstable, captain.” Lia remarks.

“I know it is. That’s why we have to go get proper repairs as soon as possible, then find a mechanic to join our crew, also as soon as possible. We can’t keep having problems like this.”

“Do you think the weapon will be okay? Do you think it’s even still attached to the ship?” Mint shifts her feet anxiously.

Veirence places a hand on Mint’s shoulder that noticeably calms her fidgeting. “We can go check the systems in the bridge, come on,” Mint nods and follows her down the corridor, plopping into her chair on the bridge to make it spin around before accessing the computer, looking at the attached systems.

Custom_System1 is online.

Reducing overclock by 20%

Renamed Custom_System1 to Mint_Chip_Surprise.

Relieved to see that the weapon is still attached to the ship and functioning, Mint turns around to face Veirence. “Okay, it’s still there,.” She squints at Veirence, who is looking at her with a side glance and a smirk. “I know that look,” Mint grins. “Lay it on me.”

Veirence scoots closer. “Okay, so, I was down in the storage bay with Lia when we were getting parts for you guys, right?” Mint nods. “And she was telling me how she thinks that the captain is ‘as close to perfection as a human could get’ and I was like ‘oohhh somebody’s got a cruuushhh’ right? What do you think?”

Mint giggles. “You always think people have crushes on each other. Do we… even know if Lia’s capable of feeling like that?”

“Well, she says that she was made to be as close to a human as possible, so she’s got to be able to,” Veirence brushes her hair away from her face. “It’s not like we haven’t seen her feeling other things before.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Mint looks down. “It feels kinda mean talking abou--” She stops herself as the door to the bridge slides open and Anam and Lia both enter the room, taking their seats. 

“What is it the two of you were discussing?” Lia queries.

Veirence and Mint trade glances as the former points her attention to Anam. “Nothing important,”

Mint looks to the captain. “The weapon works, sir.”

“Great, and we’re going to get repairs ASAP. And while we’re there we’re going to recruit a mechanic. Seem simple enough?” Anam nods to Lia. “Ready when you are.”

“Very well, activating starsail.” Lia pushes a gauge forward as space deforms around the ship and it shoots off into a beam of light, and after a time, arrives at a station.

Anam activates the ship’s intercom, despite everyone being in the same room as her. “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s about time we get some shit done.” 


	6. 005: The Engineer

“What shit is it that we will be accomplishing, captain?” Lia smiles as she and the rest of the Argo’s crew exit the ship and enter a vast space station. The crowds of people flow in opposing directions like a sort of messy highway, bumping into each other in between drowned out voices.

“Well, besides looking for a mechanic,” Anam sighs, walking through the crowds. “I’m sure you heard that  _ apparently _ somebody put a bounty on us. Now, obviously that’s why that ship attacked us earlier, and I’m not entirely confident our shoddy laser cannon won’t blow out our even shoddier generator trying to defend us from future cunts who think they can mess with us,” She runs her fingers through her hair, entering the stream of people.

“So, where are we headed first?” Veirence raises her voice to counter the crowd of noisy people.

Mint gives a sort of half-mumble.  “Are we just ignoring Lia saying a swear?”

“First thing we’re going to do is go to the recruitment area to see if we can find a mechanic, and then we’ll see if we can clear our bounty. Sound simple enough?”

The crew all agree in semi-unison, eventually fumbling their way through the crowds of people to reach the recruitment area. They are met with a basketball court-sized plaza, with a bunch of stands along the sides and in the center, some empty and some being used by either small companies or vagrant ships, both obviously in search of crew members. Anam finds a vacant stand, gets behind it and punches in a few buttons into the stand’s computer, causing the display to light up ‘SHIP MECHANIC NEEDED FOR SMALL CREW’. “Right then, now we just kinda wait for people to show interest.”

“So why are we recruiting this way instead of the way you got us?” Veirence asks, grabbing a stool and sitting behind the captain along with the others.

“We need one as soon as possible. It’ll be riskier, but I don’t want to be flying without a proper mechanic anymore. I’m amazed we lasted this long without one to be perfectly honest, but I suppose we didn’t have a bloody bounty to be worried about until now.” Disappointment and surprise ring through her tone. “Plus, this way is much cheaper. A huge amount of money that wasn’t spent on getting the Argo was spent putting the message out there that I needed a crew, and unfortunately I didn’t score a mechanic from that.”

“It makes me wonder, how did you wind up with a hyper advanced android on your ship?” Veirence leans back in a chair with arms crossed.

Anam opens her mouth to respond but notices somebody walking up to their stand. “Hello, there! You a mechanic looking for a job?”

The man’s got his hands shoved in his pockets, looking like he’s only half paying attention. “Uh, yeah. What are the details of the ship?”

Anam points to a screen on the table and taps a few buttons on her side of the stand, popping up a list of specifications of the ship. The man’s eyes shoot down the list. “Alright, Axetail, those are pretty rare. Sounds like fun, where do I sign?”

“Woah woah, hold your horses there, mate. You may know about us but we need to know about you,”

The man gives a half-smile and nods. “Oh, right. I’m uh, Jess… Borne.”

Anam stares blankly.

“Sorry, just a little nervous…” He shuffles side to side. “I’ve uh, worked on a couple ships, for about six years. Sorry, I’ll uh, get my documents that’s probably what you want,” Jess pulls out a card from his pocket, placing it on a designated section on the table that scans it and pulls up a screen in front of Anam.

“Jess Borne… okay, looks solid,” She stands up and puts her hand out. “No signature needed, just a good ol’ handshake will do.”

Jess cracks a smile and shakes Anam’s hand. “Oh, alright. Cool, what do you need?”

“Right now I need you to go to our ship, fix our generator then feel free to set up your room, it’ll be the first door on the right if you’re coming from the engine room, just past the dining room. The rest of us have other shit to do in the meantime.” She shuts down the table and starts to exit the plaza, the rest following her out.

Once the crew and Jess split off, Veirence opens up. “Don’t you think it’s risky to just leave a new recruit alone on the ship? What if he breaks something?”

Anam waves her off. “We specifically hired him to fix the things that  _ we  _ broke. If you’re so worried, you can go check up on him yourself. We don’t all have to be here.”

Veirence sighs. “No, it’s alright. Besides if I left Mint alone I feel something bad will happen,” She giggles, lightly nudging Mint, who smirks back.

“How does one clear a bounty, captain?” Lia asks.

“I haven’t really done it before, so I’m not entirely sure. At least, not for my own ship. I imagine we just put in the identification code here…” The captain approaches a section of the hallway cutout for a row of machines, cameras sat above each one to observe the user in the case of shenanigans. Anam goes through the motions, selecting options and putting in info where it’s needed. “...and then we do this, and it should basically tell us--” The black-haired woman’s eyes widen. “What.”

“Is there an issue?” Lia gives a concerned toned.

“It’s just told me that we don’t  _ have _ a bounty.” Anam scratches her head. “Well then, if we don’t have one, then what the hell was that guy on about?”

The crew share a shrug. “Too recent, or too low profile?” Veirence suggests.

Anam sighs. “Okay, well, shit. Well, fuck.” She anxiously runs her fingers through her hair for a moment. “Let’s just go back to the ship. Clearly, there’s nothing we can do about it right now besides find out who set this on us the old fashioned way.”

The crew begins walking to the docks, barging their way through the endless crowds bustling through the endless corridors like a maze of highways. After a time they eventually reach the ship and board through the port side entrance. “You guys are free to do whatever, I’m gonna check on the recruit.” Anam navigates the halls, peeking into the engineering bay and locating the mechanic. “Hey there, recruit! How’s the repairs going?” Anam ensures that she’s heard by amplifying her volume by several levels.

Jess nearly falls off the catwalk in a startle, going from a crouched position on to his back, then scrambling back up to his feet. “Oh, uh, wow you’re back sooner than I thought, uh, it’s-it’s going good nothing much uh what’s up?”

Anam squints. “Yeah… you doing alright there? You’re all sweaty.”

“Uh, yeah, well, ya know it’s tough work, heh.” He glances at the starsail drive and the blinking device attached to it, stepping in front of it to block Anam’s view.

“What’s wrong with the starsail? Did you fix the power?” Anam’s face twists slightly in confusion and concern.

“I fixed it, yeah, should be good probably. Starsail is uh, malfunctioning a bit. Had an error,” He gives a half-smile.

“...Let me look. Two heads are better than one, yeah?” Anam takes a step before Jess bursts out. 

“NO, it’s okay, really, I’ve got it handled. You really don’t have to--”

“I also didn’t  _ have  _ to hire you,” She gives him a fiery look. “Let me help, it’s fine.” She tries to push past Jess but he resists.

“Please, I--” Jess stammers and Anam suddenly grabs his collar, pushing him up against the wall.

“If you want to be on this ship there’s something you need to understand and that’s that  _ I  _ am the captain, and if there’s something you’re hiding you better tell me right now before something  _ really _ bad happens to you.” Her voice strikes through him like a spear. He gulps.

“Sorry…”  He squeaks. Anam slowly lowers him, releasing her grasp and turning away.

“Very well, carry on then.”

Jess trembles, smoothing out his shirt and looking at Anam as she walks away. But before he could catch his breath, the next thing he sees is her turning back around, then a fist rushing up to his face, then blackness.

Anam goes over to the intercom. “Hey, I’m gonna need one of you guys to come dispose of this fucker in engineering.” She lifts the unconscious man up onto her shoulder effortlessly and walks down the steps, with Veirence shortly jogging up to her.

“What happened!?” She exclaims.

“He was trying to sabotage our starsail drive. Open the door, if you would?”

Veirence goes over to the door controls and opens it up, showing the crowd of people yet again. Anam steps out of the ship and toward the main area, tossing the body onto a bench. “Okay then, that takes care of that,” She looks to Veirence and sighs, turning around to walk back to the ship, hands jammed in her pockets. “Good thing the ship’s unregistered, woulda been a  _ lot  _ of paperwork--”

“H-hey, wait!” A soft-spoken yet somehow confident voice breaks through the crowd, and a dark-haired, freckled woman in a hoodie steps forward to confront Anam. “What do you think you’re doing!?”

Anam rolls her eyes and glances at her as she continues to walk away. “What I’m doing is none of your business,” She sneers. “Get lost.”

The woman clenches her jaw. “No, you can’t just dispose of a person like that, it’s terrible! What could they possibly have done to deserve that?” She shouts.

Anam stops and turns around with a sigh. “How about sabotaging my ship and probably trying to kill me and my crew?”

“Kill…?” She looks down for a second. “I… um...”

“Yeah, so maybe don’t go up to people assuming the worst in them, kay?” Anam turns around to walk away again.

Veirence goes to Anam and, with an eye still on the woman, whispers. “Wait, cap, can I talk to her? Something about her…”

Anam stops, glances to the doctor, and gives a short sigh. “Fine.”

Veirence looks at the downtrodden woman who has decided to go over to the unconscious man and prod at him. What was she doing here? Why did she intervene? “Hey,” She says as she approaches her.

The woman turns around anxiously. “U-um…” She squeaks.

“You haven’t been around this part of space, have you?”

The woman’s eyes dart back and forth between Veirence and Anam, her mumbles heightening.  _ ‘How do they know??’ _ She stands up and gulps. “I’m… not the one who should be answering questions.” Her words come out with a light tremble, yet she acts confident.. “You just tried to dispose of a man like he was nothing. What did you do?”

“What did  _ we _ do?” Anam walks up again and interjects. “We just saved our own lives. That man,” She points to the slumped form lying on the bench. “Was trying to sabotage our starsail drive. Do you even know what that would do to our ship?”

“Not just your ship…” the woman’s eyes shift down as she thinks, regaining her composure. “Depending on the component sabotaged, it could take out this side of the station, maybe the entire structure if you somehow could cause the wormhole generator to become unbalanced in a way that interacted with the volatile fuel canisters, that is  _ if  _ you had a lot of fuel and  _ if  _ it was the correct isotope of hyperdeuterium.”

Veirence gives a worried look to Anam, who steps toward the woman with intrigue. “...Who are you?”

The woman blinks as if to snap back into reality. “Er… nobody! Just--” The groaning of Jess takes her attention, and she goes over to him. “You’re alive! Awake, even. What happened?”

“This girl is a mess, cap.” Veirence whispers.

“Yeah, but did you hear all the things she just said? Sounds like she knows a thing or two, yeah?”

“...and then when I apologized, she fuckin’ punched me!” Jess explains to the woman.

“Okay, I see.” The woman frowns. “I don’t mean to be offensive, but you’re making these things up. I’m sorry, but there is no such thing as a ‘gem destabilizer’.” She glances at the other two as if to now understand that Jess in fact was trying to sabotage them.

Jess practically reels, as if he was just betrayed. “Oh yeah? Well. Well…” He hesitates for a moment before bolting off of the bench and disappearing into the crowd.

“HEY--” Anam bursts out, ready to chase after him, but Veirence puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Let him go, cap,”

The woman tries to take this as a moment of opportunity to flee for herself, flipping her hood up and turning away, but Anam reaches out. “Wait,” She says in a much calmer tone than what was just used a second ago. The woman stops for a moment, turning her face toward them. “As you can probably tell… we, uh, need a mechanic.” Anam scratches her head, slightly embarrassed.

The woman tries to hide a smirk behind her hood. “You’re not going to punch me, are you?”

“Not unless you try to kill us,”

“Okay…” She hesitates for a moment to think. “I’ll do it.”

“Alright, what’s your name?” Anam internally reminds herself to keep track of this one this time.

The woman’s heart races. She didn’t think of this.  _ ‘I had to have thought of a fake name by now, just think of something, before they get suspicious!’ _ “Hazel.”  _ ‘That’s your real name, stupid!’ _

“Alright Hazel, welcome aboard.” Anam smiles, the three of them walking back to the Argo as Anam gives Hazel a brief rundown about the ship and its crew as the doors shut behind them.


	7. 006: Training Day

Hazel exhales. She puts the spacesuit inside her bag and hoists it over her shoulder, looking nervously toward Anam. “Okay, I’m ready,” She quietly exhales.

“You’ve got everything?”

Hazel double-checks the contents. Some pocket change, a toolkit, some basic medical supplies, and a spacesuit. Nothing too crazy. She looks up again at Anam and nods.

“What about you, Akarui?”

Mint nods. “Yep.”

“Can you give us a basic step by step, cap’n?” Hazel asks.

Anam gives a little sigh. “Fine, but if you don’t remember it this time then you better hope Akarui has your back,” She uses her fingers to count the steps as she goes through them. “We’re going to arrive at the station soon, so once we’re there you two will board the train. Get on and just act natural until the train reaches about halfway through the journey. Once there, you’ll start to make your way through the cars until you reach the storage car with the bomb inside. You’ll get suited up, open the airlock and we’ll fly the ship around to pick up the bomb and get out of there quick and simple. Got it?”

Hazel nods. “Yeah, I think so.”

“It’ll be alright, don’t worry.” Mint pats Hazel on the back and gives her an attempt at a reassuring smile.

“Okay, we’re all ready, Lia,” Anam says into an intercom.

“Affirmative, captain!” Lia responds, as the Argo arrives at a large train station-like structure floating in high orbit above a planet. A sign board lights up the walls of the station indicating arrivals and departures and their set times as Mint and Hazel step off of the Argo and onto the platform, taking a seat on a vacant bench amongst the relatively mediocre crowd.

The station’s PA system pings on. “Now arriving, Flangerus Station 4 to Tyo Station 1.”

“That’s us.” Mint mumbles.

Hazel glances at Mint and grips the strap of her bag. “I’ve never been on a zerorail before.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Mint replies, keeping her gaze locked on the incoming train as it flies into the station. Shestands up to make her way into the queue with Hazel in tow, onto the train. As the two step aboard the train and take a seat in a booth sitting across from one another, Mint pulls out a communicator device and messages the remaining crew on the Argo.

mint_chip: on the train now

Anam: great ill see u when ur ready

lovecutsdeep: Hey little Leaf hope it’s going well so far! ;3

mint_chip: it’s fine so far, hazel is nervous

Anam: well she knows that im here for backup if u guys need it

Lia003: Have fun, you two! We are counting on you!

mint_chip: thanks :p

Hazel fiddles with her hair as a server comes by to their booth. She and Mint both reel a little at the thought of human interaction.

“Good afternoon,” The server speaks softly as they hand out two small menus to Hazel and Mint. “We are serving some complimentary refreshments at the moment, onboard meals will be available later during the flight. Our specials today are...” Mint and Hazel stop paying attention to the server as they shift their focus on reading the menu items. “...So, what will it be?”

They both trade glances up from the menus in front of them. “I’m okay,” Mint says, though internally questions how they could tell it was afternoon in space.

Hazel looks shortly at the server nervously. “Can I have a um, strawberry shake…?”

The server nods and smiles as the order seemingly logs itself down on a device attached to the server’s sleeve. “Very well, your refreshment will be with you shortly.” They then leave and head through the door to another car. 

Mint watches the server leave with a confused look, but then quickly looks back to Hazel again with interest. “You like milkshakes?”

Hazel looks back up to Mint. “Oh, um, yeah. They were a rare treat for me back home, so I guess I saw an opportunity and… yeah.”

Mint smiles gleefully at Hazel. “I love them. So... where are you from?” she attempts to know how to segue a conversation.

Hazel seems a little overtaken by the question. “Um, I… it’s kind of a long story. Nowhere really interesting. What about you?”

Before Mint can answer, the server returns with the milkshake and puts it on the table, smiling at Mint and Hazel before taking off again. 

Mint tries a smile at the server as they take off, but they didn’t seem to notice. She simply returns her attention to Hazel. “Same as you, I guess. Just grew up around dad and Vei.”

Hazel takes a sip of her shake. “The only people I really grew up around were my parents. Didn’t really have any friends since I was homeschooled.” 

Mint giggles. “How are your parents?”

“They’re very... caring. Maybe a little too much…”

“I see…”

As time goes by, so do their milkshakes. Eventually, they’d run on empty and the train had moved deeper into space. “I think this is a good position.” Mint scoots toward the aisle.

“Okay, time to go, then?” Hazel asks.

Mint nods and pulls out her communicator, and the two stand up. 

mint_chip: heading to the bomb now

Anam: gotcha we’ll keep engines hot

The blonde leads through the thin hall, walking through various cars and eventually reaching a pair of restrooms between the last passenger car and the cargo car holding the bomb. Hazel examines the doors, noticing that one is currently occupied. “Um… someone is in this one.”

Mint hums. “We should just both use this one then.”

Hazel blushes at the thought. “O-okay, just… don’t look, okay?”

The two both slip into the cramped space, making sure nobody saw them both go in at once so as to not draw attention. They both quickly strip down their outer clothes and put on their suits, not wanting to waste the Argo’s time, or fuel. Shortly after, the two quickly emerge from the cramped bathroom and slink into the storage car, finally putting their helmets on.

“I guess that’s it.” Mint gestures to the giant cylindrical object in the middle of the room, surrounded by variously shaped boxes and miscellaneous baggage.

Hazel stares at it, her heart beating a little faster. “What do you think it’s for?” she asks, her eyes not leaving it.

“I’d assume blowing stuff up.” Mint stares at it in awe. She’d love to have it for herself, maybe as a display piece on her wall. But no, it was needed for the mission. She shakes herself out of it. “Anyway, let’s get this over with--”

As Mint steps forward, two figures in their own space suits approach out from behind some large boxes on the opposite side of the room.

“Well, well, well,” one of them speaks up in a sinister tone, his radiantly auburn hair visible through his visor. “Looks like we weren’t the only ones interested in this bad boy,” he taps his fingers on the metal surface of the bomb.

“Who the hell...?” Mint asks, backing up, her hand instinctively hovering over a pocket in her suit.

“We could ask you the same thing,” says the other, taller individual. “But it’d be better if you just went on your merry way and left this to us.”

“No way,” Hazel grips the pants on her suit nervously, eyeing the room for any potential defensive measures she could use in case things got sour, which she was pretty sure they would.

“Hm, how sad.” the auburn one mocks, approaching Mint slowly at first, then going for a lunge with a blunt weapon. Mint tenses up, grabbing the knife from her pocket and moving her shoulder just out of the way, causing the figure to collide with the entry door.

Hazel’s body begins to freeze up in fear, noticing the taller figure moving quickly toward her. She panics and gets behind a tall box on a different side of the room and tries to push it over onto the approaching woman, but she easily moves out of the way and delivers a quick but powerful blow to Hazel’s side, causing her to wince in severe pain.

With what seemed like the advantage, Mint tries to aim her knife for the hand that was holding the weapon, drawing some blood from the forearm as well as a yelp of pain. He retaliates by swinging the weapon overhead, causing Mint to raise her arms up to block it from hitting her face, ending up only with a horrible sensation swelling in her left arm and the feeling that something was probably broken. She yells in desperation as tears fill her eyes.

Hazel runs to another side of the room, grabbing a wrench she had spotted earlier and, knowing that her assailant was right behind her, swings around with enough force to slam her in the face, cracking her visor and sending her down to her knees with a gasp of air. Hazel clenches her teeth and attempts to follow up with an overhead swing, but her opponent’s hand raises and catches it. Rage fills the eyes of the taller one as she stands up, throwing the wrench to the side and grabbing a hold of Hazel’s throat.

As the auburn-haired attacker tries to get another swing in, Mint backs up and pushes an assortment of boxes onto him, causing him to stumble backward. Mint takes the opportunity and grabs his wrist, twisting it to get him to release his grip and let the weapon fall to the floor. She then plunges her knife into his gut, causing him to scream out in muffled agony. He clutches his abdomen and falls backward onto the floor, writhing. Mint quickly turns her attention to Hazel, whose body is now raised up off of the ground and pinned by the throat against the wall of the car, with the tall one’s other hand removing Hazel’s helmet, letting it clatter to the ground, then aiming her fist for a vicious strike.

“Let her the fuck go,” Mint shouts, her heated breath fogging the visor for a moment as she steps closer. The tall one looks over to Mint with a bloodied smirk, but concern quickly washes over her face as she sees her partner bleeding on the ground.

“No, no,” she drops Hazel, who clutches her throat and begins coughing, then rushes over to him. “Jay, please tell me you’re okay.”

“Yeah,” Jay’s breathing is heavy. “Don’t worry about me Zac, just... kill them.”

Zac gets up and looks at where Mint was in a fury but finds she isn’t there. She turns to Hazel and instead sees a knife pointed directly at her throat.

“Just, leave.” Mint stammers.

A look of worry crosses over Zac’s face at the knife, but it quickly turns back to rage. She breathes in deeply and emits a loud yell, however it’s interrupted by a quiet thwipping sound as her body tenses up and collapses to the ground. Hazel stands at the back of the room, shakily holding a silenced pistol.

Mint swallows. “It’s just a stun round, she’s okay.” she goes to pick up Jay, who has since passed out. Hazel comes to pick up Zac, both of them reeling from their injuries as they place the two in the vacant bathroom that they had changed in. Hazel nervously, but quickly, tosses her medkit in the room before the door closes, and they both return to the bomb.

“I… I...” Hazel falls to the floor on her knees, covering her face with shaking hands as she begins to sob. Mint crouches down beside her and puts her arm around her.

“Hazel… it’s alright, it’s okay.” Mint runs her hand along Hazel’s back in an attempt at comforting the poor girl.

After a short cry session, Hazel takes a deep breath and stands up, putting her helmet back on and turning to Mint. “I’m sorry…” she sniffles. “We should just finish the mission.”

Mint sighs. “You don’t have to be sorry. I don’t think the captain would have made this your first mission if she knew this would happen.” she gestures to the closed airlock on the wall of the car. “I’ll set the device.”

Hazel watches Mint go up to the airlock and place a piece of tech on the door console, pressing a few keys then opening the door with no alarm as planned. “Okay, I’ll push,” Hazel mumbles, getting on the other side of the bomb and pushing it along the floor, getting it halfway out of the oxygen field. The Argo is flying alongside oriented so that the rear is facing the car’s doorway, with Anam and Veirence waiting to retrieve. Mint and Hazel strain as they push the bomb out into space despite their painful injuries, and watch it float over to the Argo. They both then make sure their suits are stable and leap out to the ship as well, through the silence and emptiness of space with only their own breathing to accompany their ears. They eventually land and make it inside, with Veirence rushing up to Mint and nearly sending her to the floor with the power of her hug.

Mint groans from the crushing of her arms.  “Ow, don’t squeeze, please…”

Veirence quickly releases her. “Oh, sorry, are you okay?”

“We… kind of ran into some people,” Mint looks over at Hazel, who’s body language still speaks of her fear.

Anam goes over to Hazel with a worried look in her eye. “Hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Hazel shift’s her nervous eyes away from Anam’s. “They… tried to kill us.”

“What? Who?” Anam furrows her brow.

“Some people I didn’t know. I thought I was going to die… but Mint saved me. And then, I shot them. But it was only a stun, but... I don’t know… I’m sorry…” Hazel’s voice trembles and her eyes begin to water again as she holds herself. Anam catches Hazel into an embrace and the shorter one breaks into a full sob.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Anam strokes Hazel’s back and notices her breathing become a touch calmer. “Let’s get that suit off and get rid of this bomb, then we’ll all relax and sort things out, okay?”

Hazel lets go of the captain and nods. “Okay,” she sniffs, hesitating for a moment before leaving to get changed.

Anam turns to face Mint and Veirence, who had been looking on in worry. “What exactly went down in there?”

“Well,” Mint takes her helmet off. “We went into the storage car to get the bomb, but there were already two other people there in suits. They came at us, and tried to kill us over it. We fought them off, barely. I took down one of them, and when I looked at Hazel she was pinned against the wall by the other one. I called to the attacker and she noticed her friend on the floor and let go of Hazel, so I went to her and gave her the gun I brought, told her it would stun them and to use it if things got worse. So when the other person turned around I held my knife to them hoping they would surrender, but they didn’t, so Hazel shot them. We put them in the bathroom and left.”

“Wow, that’s… terrible, are you hurt?” Veirence asks.

“I tried blocking one of their attacks with my arms, but it didn’t turn out so well,” Mint looks at Veirence. “They hurt like hell. Hazel I don’t know.”

“If I had known that would happen, I wouldn’t have sent her on that mission…” Anam looks down, cursing to herself.

“But you didn’t know,” Veirence reassures. “And she’s okay. Everyone made it out.”

“Still, I never accounted for our bounty.” Anam walks up to the bomb as both Hazel and Lia return.

“So, what can I do?” Hazel asks, still cradling her arms.

“I don’t know how experienced you are with bombs,” Anam opens up a panel on one of its sides. “But we need to wire this thing in a way so that it has a delay long enough to explode very far away from us.”

“We are in deep space at the moment, so the only thing the explosion could potentially hit would be us.” Lia chimes in.

“Okay, I can see if I can set a timer on it.” Hazel approaches and kneels down to view the panel. It’s an arrangement of wires and some display panels. She pulls out a quite large multitool and starts her work.

Anam backs away to give her space and observes along with the others.

Hazel glances back at the four people surrounding her. “Can you please stop staring…?”

“Oh, sorry.” Anam and the rest back away and shift their attention elsewhere. After a short time, Hazel stands up and turns to them.

“It should be good now. I set the timer for about five minutes, just in case.”

Anam goes over to Hazel and pats her on the back. “Great! Let’s get rid of this thing, then. Everyone, help me push.” she then glances at Mint. “Except Lieutenant Akarui.”

Veirence, Hazel, Lia, and Anam all slide the bomb along the floor, shoving it into the airlock, closing both doors, then opening the outer door and letting the bomb get blasted out into space. It shortly flies away, then after a couple of minutes, silently bursts into a massive fireball. After a while, the ship shakes and sounds of light debris patter against the hull.

Anam turns to face Hazel. “Well, congratulations.” she smiles. “You just earned yourself the right to become Lieutenant…” she pauses for a moment. “Last name? I just realized I never caught your last name.”

Hazel’s heart drops. She had somehow never thought about this scenario. She couldn’t just refuse to say it, that would be suspicious. But what if they tell everyone? Can she trust them? Maybe she could trust Mint, she seems like a nice girl. But the others? She wasn’t sure.

“Hazel?” Anam waves her hand in front of Hazel, who’s just zoned out completely. Sooner or later she snaps out of it.

“Oh! Sorry, um… uh… last name, right.” she grits her teeth anxiously for a moment then looks at Anam. “Promise you won’t make a big thing about it? I don’t like being… known.”

Anam looks confused at first. “Why would we…” but she eventually connects the dots in her mind. “...No way. There’s no way. That’s impossible. There’s no way.” she then walks away  mumbling to herself incessantly that it can't be true.

The rest of the crew collectively get their minds visibly blown as they make the connection as well. Lia gasps and rushes up to Hazel with eyes wide and smile even wider as she bounces on her toes giddily. “C-can I have an autograph!?”

“I--” Hazel blushes but backs up, her mind a mix of emotions and anxiety. 

“How did we not figure this out sooner?” Veirence mentions to Mint. 

“Oh, I figured it out already.” Mint shoves her hands in her pockets.

“Oh, shut up, no you didn’t,” Veirence nudges the giggling Mint.

Hazel fumbles around her pockets and eventually finds a marker. “Um, okay, where do you want me…”

“I don’t know, I’ve never done this before, only heard about it from other people! I... have a notebook!” Lia reaches in her back pocket and pulls out a small book, nearly dropping it in her excitement as she hands it to Hazel, who opens a page and scribbles a shaky signature in a blank spot and hands it back to Lia, who is bouncing on her heels giddily.

“Oh my word thank you so much! I will treasure this forever!” Lia quietly squeals in excitement as she bounces over to Anam, who is still pacing around talking to herself. “Captain, look, look! I got her autograph!”

Anam looks. “It really must be her, then.” she walks over to the anxious Hazel. “I’m going to try to stay calm about this. You… said not to make a big thing about it, so I’ll keep it brief and you can retire for the night.”

“Cap’n?” Hazel mumbles.

Anam holds out her hand for Hazel to take. “Welcome to the crew, Lieutenant Moon.”

Hazel shakes her hand and smiles. “I’ll do my best, Captain.”


	8. 007: Story of a Sailor

“A Lightbulb Stout, please.” Anam stands at the bar as the bartender nods, pulling out a glass and pouring an amber liquid into it, then handing it to her. Anam thanks them and takes the glass, heading over to a wooden table in the corner of the bar under a dusty sunbeam with her crewmates all sitting around it; some with a beer in hand, some just with water. Well, one with just water.

“Hey, Cap’n,” Hazel gives a light smile and wave at the Captain amidst the rest of the group in a small argument about the composition of some kind of alloy metal.

“What are those three chatterin’ about?” Anam gestures to Lia, Mint, and Veirence as she takes a seat beside Hazel and sips from her glass.

“Something about chemicals I think,” She shrugs. “I haven’t been paying attention, I’m not smart enough for that kinda stuff.”

"Oh you're plenty smart enough. I mean, you're  _ the  _ Hazel Moon. You've done the kind of shit some scholar scientists only dream of. Give yourself some credit, yeah?" 

Hazel blushes. "Oh, well, thank you Cap'n… it's just not really my area, I guess."

"I'm sure you could learn about it in no time if you tried. Any leads, by the way?”

“Oh! Um, there’s some guy talking about space squids or something…” Hazel nods at an older man standing up on his chair holding a nearly empty bottle and shouting. "But I'm not sure he's reliable…"

“...Ah tell ya, th’ creature was  _ this _ big!” The man stretches his arms out, spilling some of his drink. “There ah was with me crew, minin’ asteroids in the Proxima system, when outta NOWHERE, a big fackin’ squid twice the size of me ship comes outta nowhere from behind me rock and takes a hold of me vessel!” He takes a swig as he yells, gesturing with his free hand to accent the story. “I coulda swore on me bionic hip it was the end fer me, but me and me crew took to the cannons and fended it off, best we could. It near tore me ship apart, but we scared it off. Ah tell ya lads, galaxy’s gettin’ dangerous these them days. Won’t be long til aliens come fer us and really show us what fer!” He shakes his fist.

The person who had been sitting across from him crosses their arms and sighs. “You are one crazy old man…”

Anam, who, along with her crew and admittedly the rest of the bar who had been watching this man spout nonsense, looks back at Hazel with a mixed look of both disappointment and concern for her. “I meant have you gone around and asked anyone for any information?”

Hazel looks down at her water. “I… um, no, Cap’n, sorry…”

“What, their scientific conversations too engaging?”

“It’s just that I don’t really like, feel comfortable talking to strangers…”

“You talked to us just fine when you first showed up,”

“That was different… you were kind of attacking a guy and I didn’t like the look of it, so I felt like I had to interrupt...”

“Ah, so you want me to beat someone up for ya?”

“No! No, you don’t have to do that. I-I’ll try, Cap’n.”

Anam nudges Hazel’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry about it. If you aren’t comfortable with it, I won’t force it on ya. Just means I’ll get someone else to do it with me,”

Hazel lets out a little smile. “Okay… thank you, sorry.”

“Captain,” Lia breaks away from the prior conversation to face Anam. “Have you also noticed the woman sitting in a booth pointing a device at us?”

Anam furrows her brow in confusion and swiftly turns to look around the current room, her eyes darting back and forth in an attempt to find what Lia mentioned. “What? Why didn’t you mention this earlier? I don’t…”

“She is over there, Captain, through those doorways. I did not want to interrupt your conversation with the new Lieutenant, that is all.” Lia points through a walkway into the next room, which leads through another walkway into a third room where there is a booth with a woman sitting at it, indeed pointing a device in the crew’s direction.

Anam moves to lower Lia’s hand. “Okay, well, don’t point, she’ll see us-- okay, well, she saw us.” She gets up with Lia and the two quickly walk over through the crowds toward the strange woman who had, upon noticing imminent danger, frantically gotten up and left her seat, stuffing the device in her bag.

“I’ll cut off this side, you lead her into the bathroom.”

Lia nods, splitting off through crowded tables, weaving between seats and patrons at a high speed as she keeps her eyes on the target. Eventually they reach the bathroom against the far wall of the bar, the woman entering and fumbling while trying to slam the door shut, however Lia intervenes her foot and hand just before it slams, causing light crunching sounds as a result. She pries herself inside, and Anam quickly gets to the door as Lia and the woman get inside to block any further entry.

“W-what do you want?” The woman stutters, backing up toward the sinks.

Lia locks the door behind them and approaches slowly, but with an aggressive tone. “You were pointing a device toward us. What was its purpose, and why were you doing it?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Her hands press up against the counter as she backs up away from Lia.

“What are the contents of your bag?” Lia points at the satchel hanging off of the woman’s shoulder with something sticking out of it.

“You have no right to look through my stuff!” She clutches her bag.

“You have no right to spy on us. I would like to know if you know of me and my Captain?”

“...Look, all I know is that your ship and its Captain have a very high bounty on it,”

“You want to claim that bounty, correct?”

“I already said what I had to say, step off!”

“If you know of the bounty, then it is likely you know who had set it. Tell me.”

“What? I don’t…” The woman hesitates, then quickly reaches into her bag and pulls out something, throwing it onto the ground as it bursts into a giant cloud of smoke that fills the room. Lia is caught off guard, hearing the jiggle of a door handle before the sound of a lock clicking, and the door being swung open from the inside. Confused, Lia barely has time to react. By the time she enables her heat imaging, the woman is long gone. She rushes out of the bathroom to see where she could have gone, and if it weren’t for Anam being in the way, she’d see that the crowd of people would prove it to be too difficult to locate the woman anyway.

“Lia?” Anam backs up as Lia bumps into her, both of them stepping out of the dissipating smoke. “What the hell happened?”

“Pardon me, Captain. I questioned the suspect, however before I could obtain any meaningful information, they deployed some sort of explosive and my sensors were obstructed. Before I could calculate what had occurred, they escaped.”

“Shit, I was stood in front of the door, but it opened, the smoke poured out, and I couldn’t see dick.” Anam puts her hands on her hips and sighs. “Whatever, it’s fine, let’s just head back and keep looking for leads or something. I still have to finish my drink anyway.”

The two return to the booth where the others silently sit as their eyes slowly scan across the casual stir of the bar, which was seemingly unaffected by the events that had occurred by the bathrooms.

Mint’s leg bounces anxiously as she toys with her glass. Hazel constantly shifts her gaze to her satchel which contains a couple of small books. Tempting, but it would be rude when there’s work to do.

“Heya Cap, you get any info?” Veirence smiles at Anam and waves at Lia.

“No,” Annoyance seeps through her voice as she takes a seat. “And I feel like that was our only lead.”

“I am sorry Captain, I have let you down.” Lia looks across the table at Anam with her head and eyes slightly lowered.

Anam sighs a worried sigh. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Lia. You couldn’t have planned for that.” She scoffs. “I mean, a smoke bomb? What is this, an action movie? I wasn’t even sure those were  _ real _ until just now,” Her tone of voice changes to a more joking manner as she tries to lighten the mood.

Lia gives a little giggle and slight smile, but remains mostly silent.

“Actually, I wonder-- have you seen any movies?” Anam smiles.

“Not to my knowledge, Captain.” Lia plainly states.

Anam gets up and sits beside Lia, who turns toward her. “Well, how about we all watch something when we get back to the ship, yeah?”

Hazel thinks for a moment. “That could be fun.”

Veirence nods. “Sounds great to me!”

“Okay,” Mint shrugs, turning toward Hazel in an attempt to leave the booth. “Excuse me,”

Hazel blinks. “Oh, yeah, sorry.” She gets out of the booth and allows Mint to scoot past her and walk out of the front door.

Veirence hesitates, but begins to get up to follow Mint out of concern.

Anam puts her hand on her shoulder to keep her seated, and goes instead to follow Mint outside. Once outside, she notices the view as she gets through the door frame. The blue giant sits low in the sky, creating a navy hue as a backdrop for the small cityscape surrounding the bar. A red puff of smoke coming from a bench resting against the bricked wall contrasts the darkening air. The smoke emanates from a slowly burning pink stick hanging out of Mint’s lips as she stares out at the skyline. Her head turns slightly to see Anam come out of the door and walk toward her. “What’s the matter, Lieutenant?” Anam sits down beside Mint, joining her in observing the sky.

Mint exhales another sugary red cloud as she turns back to look out. “Nothing,” She quietly states, pulling out a small package of multicolored sticks to offer to Anam, who obliges and pulls out a yellow one, lighting it, and blowing out an amber cloud.

“Haven’t had a sugarette in a while. Didn’t know it was your thing.” She gives a sigh. “But tell me what you’ve got on your mind, Akarui,”

Mint internally questions Anam’s choice of banana flavor, but leaves that thought for another time. She flicks the crystals off of her sugarette into a tray and rests her elbows on her knees with a sigh. A moment passes as she pieces her thoughts together. “There’s a lot going on, I guess, in my life right now.”

Anam nods. “Yeah? Like what?”

“Just kinda… this whole thing. It all happened so quickly. I mean, I’ve been on Geminiss my whole life, and Vei suddenly tells me about this ship recruiting people and gets me to sign up for it, then before I know it I’m in space for the first time, then on a different planet, then another, and I guess I feel like I haven’t had a chance to really just sit down and let it sink in.” She takes a drag and sighs. “And I feel like it’s kind of made a rift in our relationship, and I feel like… I dunno… she’s busier than usual.”

“I get you.” Anam smiles. “I guess we’re pretty much the opposite. I’ve always wanted to do this. Get away from Prim and just… explore, you know? Though in my case, my plus one didn’t end up coming. I mean who knows, maybe we’ll pay her a visit one of these days.” Anam’s sugarette reaches short, and she puts it out into the tray with a small crackling sound as the crystals break apart against the surface. She stands up and offers a hand to Mint. “Well then, what do you say? Movie night with the crew?”

Mint can’t help but crack a smile and put out her sugarette as well after a final drag, grabbing Anam’s hand to pull her up. “Sure.”

As the two re-enter the bar, Mint sits back down with the others as Anam goes over to the counter to pay off the tab. Veirence turns toward Mint with a smile, yet still showing concern. “You okay?” She asks quietly, smelling the familiar sweet smokey scent coming off of the blonde.

Mint nods, glancing at Anam. “Yeah.”

Veirence studies her face for a moment, then smiles a little, seemingly reassured. “Okay.” She wraps an arm around Mint and rubs her shoulder as Anam returns.

“Alrighty folks, let’s head back. Think we got all we could get out of this place anyway.”

Everyone exits the booth and makes their way outside to board the ship, it not being landed very far from the establishment puts it within walking distance. Once inside, they huddle up inside the rec room among a variety of couches, bean bags, and other seating alternatives to enjoy each other’s company. And more importantly, a damn good film.


	9. 008: Red

The light hum of a starship’s engines can be soothing for some. Something to draw those swirling thoughts away and clear your mind. Sometimes it isn’t enough, however. The only way to hope to sleep is to try and expend that energy and clear your thoughts in a different way.

While everyone else on the Argo is seemingly asleep, Anam instead finds herself in the gym -- more of a small fitness room -- with earbuds in, striking away at a punching bag. The only lights turned on in the ship are in this room. That is, until the lights lining the lower-deck hallway blink on. Noticing this, Anam glances over through the large gym window and sees Veirence walk down the hall, glancing curiously and concerningly at Anam as she wordlessly passes her, then disappears into the bathroom on the other side of the hall. Anam simply ignores it, returning to beating the poor punching bag to oblivion without a second thought of how long she’s been up. A muffled voice comes through to Anam’s ears but her music is too loud to make out what was said. She refocuses on the bag for a moment, delivering a precision blow to break it right off its chain with a metal snap. Satisfied enough with her work as it flomps heavily onto the floor, she takes out her earbuds and turns to the doctor. “Sorry?”

“I said you’re up late. Why?” Veirence crosses her arms.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Veirence rolls her eyes. “I just went to the bathroom. What’s your excuse?”

Anam sighs. “I like to work out to let off steam every once and a while.”

“What’s the ruling this time then?”

Anam plops down on the fallen punching bag with a deep exhale. “This whole bounty thing, man. I know I should have expected something like this at some point, but it’s… raised some red flags.”

“You’re worried it won’t end well?”

“It’s already there. I just want to get it off our heads, mainly so I can find out who set it and kick their fuckin’ teeth in.” Anam begins undoing her hand wraps. After a moment, she looks up at Veirence, who’s gone to sit on a bench. “What do you think about Hazel?”

“I don’t doubt she’s who she says she is. I’ve never seen a mechanic work as efficiently as her.”

“Talk about lucking out…” Anam scoffs. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. Even if she isn’t gonna be here for long, it sure is insane. I mean, she’s basically a celebrity.”

“Why would she leave?”

“You kidding? She was basically traumatized on her first mission. I bet she wants to get the hell out next chance she gets…”

“Hey, that’s not the Captain I know! Where’s your confidence?”

Anam smirks. “Can you blame me? We can’t lose a chance like this. But yeah, you’re right. She hasn’t really shown any signs of wanting to leave, I s’pose.” She stands back up. “I’ll try talking to her about it later. Thanks for… wanting to go to the bathroom, I guess.”

“Oh, I was up before that, but yeah. Gotta check on you guys when I can!” Veirence smiles as she stands up with Anam.

“Doing what? -- Actually, don’t answer that.” Anam starts walking down the hall with Veirence, turning off the gym light.

Veirence snickers. “See you in the morning.” and they both disappear back into their rooms.

* * *

Lia, Hazel, and Mint sit around a table in the rec room, each holding an array of colorful numbered cards in their hands. On the table is a small and messy pile of more cards, which Lia makes sure to keep as orderly as possible.

“What does this card do?” Lia asks, putting down a yellow card with a ‘no entry’ symbol on it.

“That… skips my turn.” Mint sighs, looking at Hazel expectantly.

“Oh! I am sorry about that.” 

“Plus two.” Hazel murmurs as she places down another yellow card.

“That means I draw two cards from the draw pile, correct?” Lia queries.

“Unless you also have a plus two card,” Mint says.

“I see… I suppose I am going to draw two, then.”

“What are you doing to her, Leaf?” Veirence questions from the doorway as she observes what the three girls are doing.

“Which one?” Mint responds.

Veirence chuckles. “Mainly Lia, but I’m concerned about Hazel, too. Mind if I join?” As the game continues, she takes a seat and draws some cards. “This brings back one too many high school memories,” she chuckles.

Mint glances up at her, and memories flood her thoughts as well. High school… it feels like it was just last year they graduated. But Veirence was just as beautiful to her as she was when Mint first met her, even if she had different hair now.

“...Leaf?” Veirence raises her voice a bit. “Mint.”

Mint snaps out of it. “Ahuh? Wha?” She then realizes she had just been staring at Veirence for who knows how long, and a deep blush floods her cheeks. “O-oh, right, um…” She quickly looks down at her hand, putting down a wild card without even checking what was at the top of the pile. “...R-red.”

Veirence looks at Mint with concern. “Everything alright?”

Mint nods, scanning her hand to simply avoid eye contact with anyone.

“Your face is quite red, Lieutenant. Do you perhaps have a fever of some kind?” Lia questions.

“I’m fine.” Mint assures them. The others give her a worried look, but continue the game.

“¡Uno!” Lia exclaims, placing her penultimate card on the pile. “Did I win?” She smiles.

“Not yet, you still need to play that final card,” Veirence points at the single card in Lia’s hand. “But now everyone’s going to basically team up against you to prevent you from winning.”

“Oh, I see.” Lia’s eyebrows narrow and her grin widens in a mischievous fashion. “Then bring all you have! You only have a one in four chance of guessing what my color could be, but that could end up not mattering if I happen to have a wild card!”

Veirence puts down a plus two card, then Mint places down a plus four wild, calling for green. Hazel hesitates for a moment as she sorts through her staggeringly large hand, looking for any plus to stack with. Her choices are drastically dwindling down, but eventually her eyes meet exactly what she was looking for. Another plus four card, meaning it doesn’t have to match the green color that Mint had set previously. She places it down, knowing she has a ¾ chance of picking a color that Lia doesn’t have. “...Yellow.” Her voice shakes in seeping dread.

Lia puts down a wild card and wins.

“Fuck.”

* * *

In the depths of the Milky Way, a renegade ship slowly circles a brown dwarf, the ship’s various sensors and arrays pointing directly at the warm star.

“Give me a systems report.” A voice bellows from the captain’s chair, where presumably the captain is seated. She is staring out of the view screen in the signature pose where you lean on your elbow on the arm of the chair and do that kind of flopped hand. You know the one.

“Er, data collection is at 58.4% for the spectrophotometer, and 33.1% for the radiometer data.” A smaller-framed man responds from his seated area behind the captain.

“Good, keep it going.”

A door in the bridge slides open and a black-haired woman walks on deck. “Excuse me, Miss Kaine,”

“What is it?” The captain doesn’t even look to see who it is, the tone in her voice comes across as though she is used to this kind of event; her, doing something, then suddenly someone comes into the bridge to inevitably say that something has gone wrong.

“The... Argo’s bounty--” The woman is cut off by the sound of the captain’s fist slamming the arm of her chair, quickly followed by the room filling with silence from any miscellaneous members of the bridge crew who had been idly chatting away. Nothing, but the sounds of the electronics and the ship engines remain.

“Don’t. Tell me. Red?” She growls through her clenched teeth.

The silence only confirms her fears.

“Fucking shit…” She swiftly stands up from the chair, causing most of the crew to reel back in fearful anticipation. When a bounty’s price increases it can mean one of two things. A red raise: where a bounty hunter has attempted to claim the bounty and has admitted failure, thus increasing the value of the bounty by a percentage of the original amount, or a white raise: the bounty setter has manually increased the original price. “How many GOD DAMN TIMES?!” She lifts a loose chair from a station and hurls it across the room, causing one of the crew members to duck as it smashes into a computer screen or two.

“Do you want me to answer that?” The black-haired woman asks smugly.

The captain immediately turns to her with furious eyes, marching over to her and staring her down intently. The black-haired woman’s face doesn’t budge from the attempted intimidation. “Yes.”

“Four admitted failures, four red raises.” She states, matter-of-factly.

The captain lets out a yell toward the woman and slams her fist into the wall, causing a large dent. “Fucking incompetent…” she storms over back to her seat and begrudgingly sits back down to stare out at the dark star. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”


	10. 009: Play Ball!

“How’s everyone feelin’ today?” Anam places her hands on her hips and smiles at the half-asleep crew in the rec room, the bright sunlight beaming through the windows and reflecting off of the tiny dust particles strewn about the morning air.

“Mm…” Mint grunts, moving her glasses away from her face as she rubs her eye to clear the morning vision out, if only for a second.

“I wanna go back to sleep, Cap’n…” Hazel yawns and stretches on a beanbag, tempted to curl up and doze off right then and there.

“Nope, get yourself some orange juice and wake up, we’re gonna have an outdoors day today!” Anam goes over to Hazel and nudges her awake.

“It  _ has  _ been a bit since we went out and did something that wasn’t… laborious.” Veirence croaks, twirling her messy hair idly as she leans against the wall, her eyes struggling to stay open.

“I am very much looking forward to whatever activities you propose, Captain!” Lia beams, sitting cross-legged on a rug beside the others.

“ _ Thank you,  _ Lia.”Anam gestures to the smiling android. “At least someone here has some enthusiasm.”

“I’m not sure she can feel anything  _ but _ enthusiasm.” Mint grumbles.

“Whatever the case, I hope you all know how to swing a bat.”

“Like… the animal?” Hazel asks. “That sounds cruel…”

Veirence squints. “I think Mint hit someone with a bat once.”

Anam glares at the crew. “Oh, shut up. Baseball’s really niche, but it’s also really fun, I promise. Me and Angel were in a team back in Old Macao and I’ve got this craving to play some more. So get up, we’re burning daylight!”

The crew, freshly freshened up and ready to go, step off of the ship out to a bright sunny day in an open field just on the outskirts of a nearby city. In the distance is a baseball field currently occupied by a sizable group of what looked to be an age range between middle schoolers and college students, all hanging around and playing. Several of them seem to have noticed the large spaceship parked nearby and spotted the crew heading their way, all sporting outfits fitting for a sunny, baseball-filled day.

“The hell are you doing here?” One of them shouts, chewing bubblegum and pointing a bat at the crew in a gesture to get the others’ attention, then resting it back on his shoulder.

Anam raises a hand and waves as the crew reaches the chain link fence surrounding the field. “Hey there. Don’t worry, we come in peace or whatever. You guys open to another team?”

The boy chewing gum looks at them for a moment, then bursts out in laughter. “You gotta be kiddin’ me. You think you can squat our field and then expect to be able to play with us? Get lost.”

“Hey come on, Scout, give them a break,” A girl shouts at him from the sidelines.

“Actually, yes.” Anam crosses her arms as she leans over the fence with a smirk, her eyes hidden behind a pair of dark aviators. “We came to play, and we aren’t leaving until we do.” She hops over the fence and adjusts her cap. “So, what’s it gonna be?”

Scout rolls his eyes. “Yeah, whatever.” He looks at the crew behind Anam and gives a judgemental look. “You’re gonna need more people than that, though.” And he turns to gather his team.

“That’s the plan.” Anam looks at her crew. “Alright, we’re going to go in the stands and the sidelines where there’s a few people not playing and ask them to join. We just need four more players, got it?”

They nod.

“And by the way, I call pitcher.” she adds.

Lia, Veirence, and Anam all go start talking to some of the idle people in hopes to recruit them for the team, while Mint and Hazel generally think about doing it, but decide it’s too hard to talk to people and would rather just pretend that they’re being productive while all around avoiding any possible conversations with mysterious strangers.

“Hey, you wanna join my team? We could use someone like you to fill up our ranks, yeah?.” Anam puts a hand out to a girl.

“You’re making a makeshift team?” The girl says. “Yeah, sounds like fun!”

“Alright,” Anam smiles. “Just give me your name and jersey number, and tell me your position and I’ll write ‘cha down!”

“Jessica C. Journey,” She salutes. “Number eleven, third base defense.”

Meanwhile, Veirence approaches a smaller girl who doesn't exactly look like she’s supposed to be hanging around college kids. “Hello there!” Veirence beams, crouching down slightly. “I--”

“I’d like it if you didn’t do that.” The girl sternly states.

Veirence is taken slightly aback. “Um, pardon?”

“You know, crouch down at me like I’m a little kid. What do you want?”

“I, uh… was only wondering if you would like to join our team.”

“Sure,” The girl blinks.

_ ‘That wasn’t too hard…’ _ “Oh, alright! What’s your name?”

“Field, Scarlett. Number two. I’ll play left fielder if you don’t have one already.”

“Okay, cool! Thanks so much!”

Scarlett does not look amused.

Lia looks around at the small crowd on the bleachers, observing anyone who could potentially be interested in joining the team. Her eyes unexpectedly meet someone else’s, and upon them noticing that Lia had just seen them, their eyes light up and a smile crosses their face as they wave excitedly at her. Lia can’t help but smile and wave back, walking over toward them. “Hello! You were watching me.”

“Hi! You noticed me!” They excitedly murmur. “I just thought you looked really nice! Sorry for staring.”

Lia giggles. “Well, thank you so much! I have never met someone so interested in me in such a short amount of time. Besides maybe my creators, haha!” She laughs in a way that seems fake, but it’s hard to tell. Lia notices the silence coming from the stranger. “...Apologies, my crew have suggested that making jokes would cause me to be more relatable. It does not seem to have worked.”

The person just stares at her with pure amusement. “Can I join your baseball team?” They quickly spew out.

Lia hadn’t even mentioned the team yet. Just how long had this person been watching her? “Why, of course you can! What is your name, friend?” She quickly follows up. “Oh, and I will require your jersey number and the position you will be playing!”

“I’m Nollie! Call me your number 31 and right fielder!” They exclaim, getting up from their seat and saluting.

Mint looks over at Hazel with a concerned squint as they stand in the shade near the underside of the stands.

Hazel looks back with the same expression. “...I guess we should get someone? Do our part, right?”

Mint sighs. “Okay,” She quietly mumbles. It’s hard to hear over the squeaking of the metal seats and the sounds of sports ball chatter happening on the field, but Hazel can make it out anyway.

“I guess we…” Hazel begins slowly walking forward, looking for anyone who looks like they could be worthy of their soon-to-be championship baseball team. Mint slightly shuffles behind Hazel, who, in turn, makes sure Mint is still behind her as the two nervously approach a potential candidate. “Um, hello there?” Hazel tries an awkward wave to get the girl’s attention as quietly as possible while still making sure she can be heard.

The girl blows a pink, sugary bubble and turns to Hazel as it pops, noticing Mint just out of sight behind her. “Yeah? What’s up.”

“We… were just wondering, um. Do you... want to join our team?” Hazel tries her best to get the words out without seeming too desperate.

“Depends,” She smacks her gum. “What do you have that these other guys don’t?”

“U-uh… I’m the caaatch… errr???” Hazel stretches out her words as she looks back at Mint for confirmation, who just gives an unsure look, her eyes darting to the sides with a confused and forced smile.

“Hm, okay. You seem pretty confident about this, so I think I can hang with that.” She stands up and sticks her fist out. “Name’s Ray.”

Hazel and Mint internally breathe a heavy sigh of relief, their hearts racing with distress and anxiety. Mint’s fingers fiddle with stray dangling bits on her clothing and her lips constantly shift around. “Okay, thanks! The rest of us are… just over here…” Hazel’s fist daintily meets Ray's and she turns around to walk over toward the crew, hoping Ray follows her, but too worried to look back in fear of coming off as weird.

“Ah, great, you got our center fielder.” Anam smiles at the two of them, then looks at Ray. “Hey there, grab a blank jersey and a permanent marker,” She gestures to a folded out table with a pile of white baseball jerseys and several markers, then turns to her crew as everyone gets to work on their jerseys. “We still need a team name.”

“How about… The Super Soakers!” Veirence suggests.

“Too innuendo,”

“The Argonauts!” Lia smiles.

“Too easy,” Anam turns to the new team members. “What about you guys?”

“The Roy Boys.” Ray blows a bubble.

“...No…?” Anam seems confused, but carries on anyway.

Jessica raises her hand. “What about Solid Souls?”

“I feel like that’s a reference to something that I don’t understand, so no.”

“How about בייגל מוות?” Hazel quietly recommends, then sees everyone turn to face her with a strange look.

“...What?” Anam leans in closer to make sure she heard right.

“בייגל מוות.”

“How about I get back to you on that one?” Anam looks toward Mint. “What have you got?”

“Cybran Illuminate?” Mint mumbles.

“Okay that’s  _ definitely _ a reference and doesn’t fit baseball at all, so also no.” Anam gives a short sigh and turns to Scarlett.

“The Wild Nerds.” Scarlett says.

Anam slowly closes her eyes in impatience and disappointment, then turns to Hazel as her eyes reopen. “We’re just going to go with… whatever you said.”

Hazel gives a light smile. “Yay…!”

Anam smiles back at her, then faces the rest of the group. “Alright, everyone’s got their jerseys? Put ‘em on, and we’ll go teach that Scout bitch a lesson not to fuck with בייגל מוות. I… think I said that right.” She turns to Hazel for confirmation, who gives her a silent thumbs up. “Let’s go.”

The newly formed and prepared team get dressed and head out to the field, where they see Scout and his team practicing. Anam holds a bat behind her neck and lifts her head up with a smirk. “Hey!”

Scout turns around and sees the team behind Anam and gives a judging look back, as the people he was practicing with start to form up behind him as well. “Oh yeah, knucklehead? You ain’t gonna win. Not with a team like that.” He spits.

“Are we gonna talk, or are we going to play?” Anam retorts.

Scout snickers. “Talkin’s part of the game, cupcake. But, if you insist. Three innings.”

The two teams take positions, with Scout’s team stepping up to the pitcher’s mound as the rest of them spread out along the field. Anam’s team lines up and Scarlett is first at bat. “PLAY BALL!” Scout yells, causing the pitcher to wind up and throw a quick fastball, simple and straight. Scarlett swings vigorously, hitting the ball into a high arc toward the outfield as she begins to sprint toward first base. If she makes it there before the ball is caught, she’s safe. All eyes watch as it falls toward the right field. Scarlett’s foot hits the base with a cloud of dust and the ball lands in the mitt right after. She breathes a sigh of relief as she hears her team on the side cheering.

“Fuck yeah!” Nollie cheers, pumping their fist.

“Good job Ms. Field!” Lia shouts, waving at her excitedly. Scarlett gives an acknowledging half-smile in return as Veirence steps up to the plate. Once she enters position, the pitcher takes aim and throws the ball in a trajectory that bewilders her. It starts off straight, but suddenly goes toward her right just before she expects it, making her swing in a panic and miss entirely. Strike one.

“What was that!?” She exclaims, lowering her bat in disbelief. 

“That was a cutter ball,” Anam tells her. “Cuz they’re assholes.”

“They’re playing mind games this early on,” Jessica mentions to Anam. “Giving hard pitches to the newbies and easy ones to us.” She sneers.

Regardless, Veirence readies up for the next pitch, exhaling and focusing her vision on the incoming ball. It leaves the pitcher's hand at a slow rotation, but at a straight enough angle that Veirence can swing just in time to hit it, feeling the satisfying crack of the bat resonate throughout her. She sprints off toward first base, which Scarlett leaves quickly, touching second. Unfortunately Veirence isn’t fast enough, and the infielder tags the base with the ball before she can reach it. “Out!” the umpire exclaims. Veirence curses under her breath and heads back as Anam steps up to the plate.

“You’re in for it now,” She grins, taking stance and giving a few test-swings before the pitcher lets loose. With a CRACK, the ball immediately launches at remarkable speed past the fences. A clear home run. Anam laughs “Looks like I’ve still got it.” as she and Scarlett walk the rest of the way around the diamond undeterred as they touch home plate, scoring two runs.

“Does that mean we win?” Mint remarks.

“Not yet.” Ray blows a bubble in reply to the girl behind her as she steps up to the plate. The half inning continues, and eventually the sides switch as either team score runs and outs back and forth until the third and final inning, in which Anam’s team are out on the field and the scores reach a close race. The teams huddle together for the final plan before the last half inning.

“Alright,” Anam leans into the huddle. “We’ve got to do everything we can to keep our lead. Moon, I’m trusting you to give me pitches you think will work against whoever is batting. We’ve seen them all go, so we should generally know their strengths and weaknesses at this point.”

“We will try our best to stay on our feet!” Lia adds.

Hazel nods eagerly, and the huddle breaks as the teams spread out again to the field once more. Crouching behind the batter, she looks toward Anam expectantly, throwing a signal to the pitching Captain. Anam changes her grip on the ball accordingly and throws an odd-angled pitch that throws off the batter, changing the direction each time and getting three quick strikes.

The next batter comes up, seemingly immune to the fancy pitch and hitting it on the first try, making it to first base. When the next batter comes up, Anam narrows her eyes and pays attention to Hazel’s signal, opting for a traditional curve ball which earns her two easy strikes, but the third pitch hits, and the ball careens into the air. Mint’s eyes lock on to the ball, squinting to get a better look. The ball hits the ground but she quickly picks it up, throwing it toward Lia but coming up too short, causing both first and second base to now be occupied.

“Fuck, fuck!” Mint fizzles, kicking the dirt.

Veirence notices this, and calls out to her. “You’re doing just fine, Leaf! Keep your chin up!” Giving a thumbs up.

Mint gives a slight smile to her, though opts for keeping her gaze elsewhere out of embarrassment. The next ball comes in from above while she’s distracted by Veirence, and her attention quickly shifts to it, holding her mitt out in a panic and letting the ball land in perfectly. She barely got it in time, but apparently nobody thought she would catch it, because when she looked away from the ball, everyone was staring at her with awe. Three outs in one.

“And that’s the whole ball game!” Anam teases Scout before she walks over toward the perplexed game ender.

“You did it, Mint!” Veirence exclaims, dashing toward her with excitement spread across her face. She nearly tackles Mint to the ground with the force of her hug, and the two share a laugh. Veirence lands a firm kiss on Mint’s cheek, causing both of them to look a little confused, but still smiling. If it weren’t for being red already from the workout, her face would be a tomato.

“Whaa? All I had to do was… catch a ball?” Mint stands up, dusting herself off and putting the emotions that kiss brought on hold.

“Specifically  _ that  _ ball, Lieutenant, indeed!” Lia stands by, rhythmically patting Mint on the head. “Catching it caused all three of the runners to get out all at once, exceeding the required amount of outs we needed by one!”

Scout and his team go up to the celebrating squad and he crosses his arms. “Alright, ya got me. Turns out a couple newbies like you ain’t so bad after all.” He extends his hand to Anam. “Just know we was goin’ easy on ya, and next time’ll be different.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Anam shakes Scout’s hand and turns back to her team. “Scarlett, Nollie, Jessica, Ray, we couldn’t have done this without you,”

“Of course!” Jessica smiles.

“Yeah, it was fun.” Scarlett nods.

Nollie snickers. “You guys are awesome!”

Ray blows a bubble and smirks. “Good game, for sure.”

The team splits up, and the crew head back to the ship as the suns sink toward the horizon.

“Get some well deserved rest, everyone. We had a good effort out there.” Anam yawns. She and the crew all branch off into their respective quarters, with Mint following Veirence into the latter's room, hanging meekly off the door frame. 

"Vei…?" Mint peeks shyly around the frame. 

Veirence slightly startles, not expecting anyone to follow her into her room. She turns to smile at Mint. "Oh, hey. What's up?" 

Mint slowly steps through the door, letting it slide closed behind her as she stands by it. "Um..." She doesn't meet Veirence's eyes, her hands constantly fiddling with her earrings. 

Veirence gives a sigh and a warm smile, stepping toward Mint. "What‘s wrong?" 

A lump forms in Mint's throat. "I… I don't know, I--" her fiddling fingers are stopped by the touch of Veirence's caring hands on hers. Mint's head lifts up to meet her eyes, her breath short as she practically freezes in place. 

“Hey, it’s alright. You can tell me.” Veirence takes Mint’s hands and leads them to the side of her bed, where they both sit.

Mint exhales, relaxed by Veirence’s grip. “It’s just, ever since we got on this ship… you’ve been kind of... distant. And I’ve been wondering if I did anything to make you mad at me… or something” Her head lowers again, keeping her eyes out of sight.

Veirence squeezes Mint’s hands. “Oh, Leaf, no. You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just that I’ve had a lot to do on board -- surprising, I know, since we don’t get that many patients -- and it’s way harder to keep up with my side job out here. I never meant for it to feel like I was mad at you, I’m so sorry.” She wraps her arm around Mint’s shoulder, whose head rests against her. “How about we go out again sometime? Just the two of us?”

Mint’s heart beats faster as her eyes start to water. That was all she needed to hear. Worldlessly, she buries herself further into Veirence’s chest as her tears stain the doctor’s clothes. Veirence gives a light chuckle as she rubs Mint’s back and hums lovingly.

“Is that a yes?” she coyly asks.

Mint chokes out a response through her silent tears. “...yes.”


	11. 010: Return

“The origin of the distress call is closing, Captain. Approximately 36 seconds of burn time to reach identification distance.” Lia reads off the data on the screen before her.

“...I’m not seeing a ship or station just yet, so be ready for shenanigans.” Anam squints at the viewing window, slightly leaning forward.

“A small asteroid field could mean that what was originally sending the signal was destroyed, correct?” Lia questions.

“Yeah, but we’d at least see debris floating around, surely…” Anam grits her teeth in suspicion. “Akarui, raise shields, just in ca--” she’s cut off by an obnoxious electrical humming filling the room, causing everyone onboard to reel in discomfort and cover their ears. The lights flicker then shut off, followed by the ceasing of the noise as well as the rumble of the ship’s engine.

“Umm, sir…?” Mint’s voice hints of fear as the Argo now floats through an asteroid field in darkness and silence.

Anam wordlessly stands up from her seat, gesturing for Mint and Lia to follow her, but Lia does not comply. “Lia,” Anam calls out to her. After no reply, she raises an eyebrow and walks over toward her, only the light reflected from the orbited planet shining through the ship’s bow window reveals her state: Perfectly still, eyes shut.

“...Shit, oh shit.”

“Sir?”

“The distress call was a trap; we’ve been EMP’d.” Anam picks up Lia’s inanimate body and begins to walk toward the main corridor with Mint shortly behind, turning to open up a side storage closet as the red emergency lights power on. The ship slows its drifting and comes to a stop as the emergency auxiliary power comes online. Anam carefully places Lia down in the closet, then closes the door.

Hazel and Veirence both arrive to meet the others, panic written across their faces.

“What’s going on?” Concern laces Veirence’s voice as suddenly the ship rumbles with explosions emanating from the lower deck.

“We fell into an EMP trap,” Anam signals the crew to follow her down to the source of the explosion. “And after whoever did this finish bombing us, they’re probably going to board and attempt to kill us,” Several areas of the bottom deck begin smoking and showing other signs of severe damage through the continued attack. “Everyone prepare to defend.”

“Where’s Lia?” Hazel asks, watching Anam go down the corridor and into her room, coming back out holding a baseball bat decorated with nails.

“Lia was affected by the initial hit, but I’ve hid her away, so I doubt anyone will find her if they do board.” Anam begins to head toward engineering down the way. “Hell, it took me weeks to find that room when I first got this ship. Only way they’re finding her is if they kill all of us, and there’s no way that’s happening.” She turns her head to face the crew while continuing to walk. “You’re all going to need weapons, by the way.”

“Well, I have a comically sized wrench that I wasn’t sure had any practical uses, but I guess I can try that?”

“Sounds as good as anything.”

As they reach the room, Hazel begins to dig through her tool stash with Anam by her side, noting that Mint and Veirence are no longer with them, however they shortly catch up holding weapons of their own.

“Always wanted to try out this gun I got a couple weeks ago,” Mint smiles, holding a very large rifle? Shotgun? Thing? With Veirence wielding a nodachi sheathed on her side.

“I don’t exactly have anything to fight with in my room, so Mint let me use her sword.” Veirence comments as more explosions shake the ship.

“Well, we’re all here, but this isn’t the only entrance. Akarui and Hashir, you guard the port and starboard airlocks up top. Moon and I will guard down here. You let us know if they come in through there.”

Mint and Veirence quickly nod, gripping their weapons tightly as they rush upstairs.

“I don’t want to fight, Cap’n…” Hazel’s breath shakes as she thinks of her earlier encounters.

“It’s the only thing we can do, Moon. I think we passed the point of talking the moment we fell into a pirate trap.” Anam sighs, and after an almost torturous amount of time waiting for the boarding party, through the explosions and the flames, a voice shouts from the upper decks signaling Anam and Hazel to rush up to the corridor where Mint and Veirence are back to back, facing port and starboard airlocks respectively. In front of Veirence are two people, armed with batons of some sort. Against Mint are three. The two on either side also armed with batons, and a much larger woman in the middle. Anam recognizes the woman and grits her teeth through narrowing brows. “Kaine…” she growls.

Zanatha notices Anam and smiles grimly. “Captain Misra,” she cracks her knuckles as she walks over toward Anam. “Just who I wanted to see. You’re much shorter in person.” Wasting no time in cocking her arm back, Zanatha throws a punch toward Anam, who dodges it and grabs Zanatha’s forearm to deliver a strike with the base of her bat to the bridge of Zanatha’s nose. The person accompanying Zanatha charges in, delivering a hard blow to Anam’s exposed side, causing her to jump back.

Stood before Hazel, one of the invading crew smirks and twirls their baton, swinging overhead. Hazel underestimates the weight of her wrench in an attempt to deliver the first strike, alongside her body being nearly locked up from fear, causes a too-slow reaction and as such, a face full of the enemy’s baton. Recollecting herself, she quickly lifts her weapon in angered retaliation and swings it sideways into the jaw of her attacker, stumbling them to one knee.

In the midst of the chaos, Veirence widens her stance, drawing her blade from its sheath and lunging it forward. The unusual length of the blade catches her opponent off guard and it slices along his outer thigh as he dodges to the side and delivers several quick counters. Veirence eventually is able to bring her weapon up to block additional strikes. The sword is unwieldy, but she hardly notices through the adrenaline, backstepping between the other bodies involved in the battle to keep the enemy at range of her.

“Take a step, I  _ dare _ you.” Mint smiles through her focused squint, aiming her weapon at the person before her.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to bring a gun to a baton fight?” The person spins the rod in her hand, smiling back at Mint.

“Hasn’t anyone told you talk is cheap?” Mint adjusts her aim, trying her best to steady her breath. She feels Veirence brush past her, and the woman in front of her notices this distraction, allowing her to rush forward, ducking the instinctive blast coming from the gun and tackling Mint to the ground between Veirence and her enemy, grabbing Mint’s wrists and twisting them to cause her to drop her gun to the floor.

Anam counters her attacker with an elbow to the throat that drops her to the floor coughing and hacking. Anam gives no hesitation in grabbing her head and delivering a swift knee to the side of it, knocking her out and into the ground. She turns to face Zanatha, immediately met with a fist against her jaw. “Alright, so it’s gonna be like that, eh?” She turns her head to face Zanatha again, spitting some blood onto the ground and readying her fists as the two enter a combat stance across from each other.

“Oh, it was like this the moment you stole my shit and ran away, just like the coward you are.” Zanatha and Anam begin to trade blows. Blocking, countering and more or less beating the shit out of each other. Anam gets backed into a wall, and Zanatha throws a fist straight toward Anam’s face, who dodges at the last second. Zanatha yelps in pain from the dent she had just made in the metal plating, giving Anam time to reposition behind her. Zanatha instinctively launches her elbow behind her, slamming against Anam’s unsuspecting face and sending her cold to the floor.

Hazel’s grip tightens around her wrench as she studies the downed opponent before her. She nervously steps back and forth, licking her lips as her eyes dart around. Before she could register it, their legs swept beneath her and her head thumped against the ground. The enemy stands above her, and Hazel’s weapon is out of her hands. Fear paralyzes her as she sees the incoming baton, and then nothing.

Veirence and her opponent stand off for a second, and she finds she has no choice but to make the first move. She raises her guard and attacks, requiring the enemy to block the strike with both hands on his weapon. He takes advantage of the stalemate and kicks out Veirence’s knee. As she cries out in pain, Veirence has no choice but to stumble back, faltering onto the ground from her weakened leg but having just enough time to regain posture and blindly thrust forward, parried easily, then disarmed with hardly an effort, as he delivers multiple blows before bringing her to her knees.

Gun locked between them, Mint and her enemy wrestle the weapon from each other between blows and blunders as the gun clatters to the ground countless times, with neither of them able to hold on to it long enough to get a shot off. Their breathing is heavy, and their focus locked only on each other and the gun. Mint eventually ends up atop the enemy, stunning her with the butt of the weapon. She has the barrel at her head and her finger on the trigger, but a reminder flashes across her mind, freezing her. ‘ _ What would Veirence think if you did this?’ _ And in this moment, the remaining enemies quickly swarm her and put her with the rest of her defeated crew.

“This is it?” Zanatha laughs. “This is your pathetic crew?” she lightly kicks at Anam’s half-conscious form as the invading crew line up their victims by the airlock. They kneel, dazed, with arms tied behind their backs and at the mercy of Zanatha’s word. “You put up quite the fight, I admit,” she walks over toward Hazel, crouching down and lifting up her chin. “Can’t say the same for your little friends here, though.”

Anam’s jaw clenches. “Don’t fucking touch her,” she seethes.

Zanatha pushes Hazel’s face away with a scoff. Anam beings to stand up in a fury at this, but is quickly beat back down by the others. “I’ve always wanted an Axetail,” Zanatha looks around at the flaming corridors, hands on her hips. “And finally I’ve got one. Didn’t even have to look, either. Could use a bit less fire, though,” She bends down to smirk into Anam’s black eyes. “You just showed up one day, stole  _ my  _ property, and thought you could just get away with it.” she sighs, rolls her eyes, and stands back up. “Whatever, no sense in delaying. Fifi, dispose of them.”

“What… are you doing with my friends?” a despaired voice comes from down the corridor.

“Lia--!” Veirence quietly chokes out.

Zanatha and her crew, eyes wide, turn to face Lia. “Oh, you have  _ got  _ to be--”

Taking advantage of the turn of events, Anam swiftly gathers a swell of adrenaline and gets to her feet, kicking out the back of Zanatha’s legs. Mint, having already cut her binds with a hidden knife, jumps up to cut Anam’s bindings, moving to the others as they assist in the attack.

Anam grabs a hold of Zanatha, subduing her quickly and rushing to help the others. Zanatha and her crew are eventually tied up at the mercy of Anam and her team. “Alright, listen up, you piece of shit,” Anam wipes her mouth. “I know you’re the one who put the bounty on us. I also know you’re the one who just tried to, obviously, kill me and my crew  _ and _ steal my ship.” She squats down to meet Zanatha’s eye level. “I’m going to give you the opportunity to forget all of this, lift the bounty, and never cross my path again.”

Zanatha only stares for a moment, gritting her teeth and glaring daggers into Anam’s stone face. Her head lowers as she simply begins to laugh. 

Anam raises an eyebrow and looks to one of Zanatha’s crew. “She do this often?”

“Fuck off, Misra.” Zanatha scoffs. “Luckily for you, I already lifted the bounty. I figured there was no point in paying people to do a job I was already capable of doing. Turns out, I didn’t account for your little friend to appear and fuck everything up.”

“Then consider your lesson learned. Now fuck off.” Anam signals to her crew to each grab one of the others as they shove them into the vessel that initially broke through the port and starboard airlocks.

“In time, Misra.” Zanatha spits.

“Don’t count on it.” the airlock door closes and the vessel is disengaged. Anam turns around with a deep sigh. “If you all could help repair the ship so that we don’t explode on the way to the nearest repair bay, I would greatly appreciate it. I know we just went through some shit, but we have work to do.”

The crew wearily nod and head toward the engine room. Anam takes Lia’s wrist as the rest walk off, and she pulls her into a tight embrace.

“Captain…!” Lia’s eyes widen. “I am sorry if I had worried you.”

“No, no you’ve done nothing wrong, Lia,” Anam clutches at Lia’s shirt before letting go of her. “I was worried I wasn’t going to see you again… that’s all.” she wipes a smear of blood off of Lia’s neck. “Sorry for bleeding on you there.” they both join in a chuckle. “Now, let’s go help the others.”


	12. 011: React

The deep red emergency lights fade away into a subtle white ambience as the crew stare with their tired eyes through the bridge’s viewing window upon a derelict drifting slowly through the asteroid field ahead. Viewable only due to its silhouette cast against the orbiting planet’s brightened surface.

“An abandoned ship…?” Anam mumbles. “We could save a  _ lot _ of cash scrapping that thing.”

“Would you like to maneuver closer for a lifeform scan, Captain?” Lia sits idly with a patient smile in her station as the others are huddled more or less around the Captain’s chair.

“Just be on the lookout for any more traps, but yeah.” Anam gestures, keeping a sturdy eye on the dark ship as the Argo cautiously floats toward it. “That is, if you guys are okay with it. I know we kind of just got beat to shit…”

“I could really use a shower and a long nap…” Veirence yawns and stretches, wincing in pain and grasping her shoulder.

“I think it’ll be a relaxing activity for all of us, if it goes well.” Anam comments. “Besides, would you rather shower before getting in a big sweaty suit, or after?”

Veirence shrugs. “I guess you make a point, if you think it’s worth it.”

Mint and Hazel nod and agree.

As the ship gets closer, Lia moves a switch on the console expecting a response on the screen, however nothing happens. She flips the switch again with a similar result. “It would appear the scanner was damaged in the assault, Captain.”

Anam sighs. “That makes things a little more difficult.”

“What’s the plan, Cap’n?” Hazel eyes the giant ship ahead of her.

“Well, it’s a tough decision. Either we risk getting into another trap, or we see if we can scrap this thing.” Anam looks up at Hazel. “You’re the mechanic; what do you say?”

Hazel blinks. “M-me? You want me to decide?”

“Well yeah, you probably know this ship better than I do the moment you got on board. Is it worth a shot?”

“Cap’n… this is the second ship I’ve ever been on, and the first one for an extended time. You give me too much credit…”

“Personally, I don’t think I give you enough. If you’re not willing to do it, no problem.”

Hazel sighs. “...Would we be able to afford repairs without doing this?”

“Well, judging by the list Lia gave of all the malfunctioning systems, adding the lifeform scanner… no.”

“So… let’s do it?”

Anam nods and stands up. “You heard her, folks. Lia, take us in with shields up just in case, and stay here with the ship, please. Everyone else, get an EVA suit, a scrap kit, and a  _ real _ weapon. We’re taking this thing apart.”

“Good luck!” Lia cheers.

_ ‘Oh god oh god I’m going to regret this aren’t I…’  _ Hazel shakes herself, heading with the others toward the engine room. The EVA suits are bulky, made even bulkier by the large backpacks filled with various primitive early 2100’s tools. They’re cheap, but with enough elbow grease they’ll get the job done.

The Argo drifts toward the rotting derelict, clunking in place with its aft ports as the crew enter the small airlock room, door shutting behind them. Anam turns to face the group. “Alright, let me tell you the basics of this suit and the tools we have, before I forget. Again.” she takes the bag off of her back and puts it on the ground, taking various tools out. “First off, magboots. Can’t guarantee this ship will have a working gravgen, so probably best to keep these on. Then we have our headlamps, since, ya know, it’s probably gonna be fuckin’ black in there. Comms, obviously, band 48 like always...” Anam carries on listing the various tools in the pack, to the dismay of Mint whose yawn fogs up her visor. “Everyone got it? Akarui?”

Mint brings her arm into her suit to wipe the fog away. “Ah, yes sir...”

Anam raises an eyebrow. “Okay, well, whatever you didn’t get from that, the doctor will have to teach you, because I’m not explaining that again.” She turns to the door and pulls a switch on the wall. As the air depressurizes, the team face the gateway opening into the dark and decrepit vessel’s corridor. The lights are out, and countless miscellaneous objects float around the hall. Everyone flips on their lamps and boots. “You’ve each got the list of parts we need, get to work.”

“You never cease to amaze me.” Veirence nudges Mint as they branch off from the others down a separate hallway leading toward the bridge.

“Hey, just ‘cause listening to lectures makes me tired doesn’t mean I’m not listening, you know?” Mint smiles.

“It apparently hasn’t failed you before.” Veirence shrugs, noticing a side door slightly ajar just before reaching the bridge and shines her light on it. “You think there’s something in there?”

“Probably nothing we need, we don’t have to go in.” Mint shifts her eyes away from the door, as if it was no concern.

“You’re just a scaredy cat :3. Come on, it could be cool! Or spooooky!” Veirence lightly pokes Mint at an annoying rate, forcing a smile out of her. “Yeeeeaah, come ooon!”

“...Ugh, fine.” Mint tries to sound annoyed, but her smile betrays her

They go into the room cautiously, Veirence heading in first. Mint stays just behind her, peeking over Veirence’s bulky suit shoulder. It appears to be some sort of quarters, with a desk, bed, and bookshelf among other miscellaneous objects floating about.

“I don’t see any kind of horrific monster or anything, or any bodies… if that’s what you’re worried about.” Veirence notes, stepping slowly further into the room. 

“I’m not worried… just, being careful. What if there’s a trap?”

“You weren’t this careful earlier.”

“Well--” Mint’s eyes search the room and she notices something on the floor. “What is that?”

“That looks like a giant scorch mark, huh. And… I want to say red paint.” Veirence comments on a trail of blood on the floor.

“Vei… we have to tell the Captain. Is it fresh?”

Veirence bends down, but as her light moves it catches unusual marks on the wall. “Some big bullet holes or something…” She returns her direction to the blood and tries to smudge it with her finger. “It’s long dry.”

“Was this ship raided or something? It’s like someone was killed in here…” Mint comments, slowly moving further into the room as she watches Veirence pull off her bag and search inside. She pulls out a multitool, switching it to a screwdriver.

“See if you can find anything else in here, I’m going to take some of this, maybe get some answers back on the Argo after.” Veirence chips at the blood and gathers some into a small container.

Mint hesitates, stepping forward into the room as it looks messier and messier the more they examine it. She approaches the desk, where supposedly there would be objects on top of it, had they not been floating around the room. She glances around for anything, a notebook or papers of any kind.  _ ‘Maybe they left a log or something…’ _ . Through the spontaneous debris she sees several singed papers and collects them, each either having small burned holes in them, the edges burned, or both. Most are illegible.

Veirence stands up, clonking her helmet playfully against Mint’s. “Find something?” 

Mint smiles at her. “Yeah, I’ve got some writings of some kind.”

“Maybe they left a log or something?”

Mint reads the tops and bottoms of each paper -- if they were present -- searching for dates or anything to order them by, and then sorts them as best as she can. “Umm…” her eyes scan the pages, chewing her lip as she constantly reads into parts that are covered in black marks or have just been burnt away. “Well, it looks like this is the Captain’s writings, but no names or anything, which is kind of weird. Something about an experiment… research on some planet called Dethea.”

“Dethea…? Can I see?”

Mint hands the pages to Veirence, who searches through them. “Have you ever heard of that?” The blonde looks confused.

“No, not at all. If it’s a new IGA colony it seems awfully deserted, plus they would have made a huge deal about it on the news like they always do if it was.”

“They also mention something about a facility, and ‘disturbances’. I think there’s something big here.” Mint points to the parts of the pages she’s talking about as Veirence follows along.

“This is crazy, but I don’t think we’re going to get any more info here. Let’s go do what we came here to do and when we’re back on the ship we’ll talk to the Captain about it, okay?” Veirence hands the papers back to Mint, who packs them away, both of them then leaving the Captain’s quarters.

“You got it?” Anam strains, lifting up half of a big piece of metal covering a wall panel.

“Yeah.” Hazel grabs the other side, and they pull it out of the way.

“Okay, that should do it. We’ll grab these parts and meet up with the other two, see what they’ve got?”

“Sure thing, Cap’n,” 

Anam turns on her communicator. “Hey team, got anything? We’ve got a good chunk, we’ll meet you back at the entrance, alright?”

“We’ve found a bit of salvage around the bridge but we found something else we want to look at back on the ship, see you there.” Veirence replies.

Upon meeting up and entering the Argo, the team get their suits off and revel in the joys of free movement once again.

“Alright Lia, take us out.” Anam says into the comm panel as she stretches her arms. “So, doctor, what is it you found?”

“Some writings, plus a blood sample I would like to analyze. I’ve got tools in my lab, so if you want to find out along with me that’s where I’ll be,”

“Sounds interesting… I think we could do with a little collaborative puzzle to cap off the day.”

In the medical bay, Veirence has set up a makeshift lab on one of the tables. Anam, Mint, Hazel, and Lia all accompany her as they have their own tasks in solving the mystery. Mint and Lia are searching the pages for various pieces of info and writing them down on a more legible surface. Anam and Hazel go through several other items taken from the ship that are believed to be relevant to the research being conducted. Veirence is analyzing the blood sample she had taken, piecing it together bit by bit to try and find a DNA match.

“The information you have gathered is quite interesting, Lieutenant!” Lia cheers, her eyes meeting a stray page for a fraction of a second as she collects the data written on it near-instantly.

“Mhm,” Mint’s eyes flip between a notepad and the pages as she notes down anything interesting. She notices Lia has stopped and looks up at her. “Done already?”

“I have examined all of the data provided on these pages and stored them within my data!” Lia smiles.

“And…? What did you find?” Mint questions as she sorts the papers into piles of finished and unfinished.

“I have discovered that the unnamed Captain of the unnamed space vessel had encountered an anomaly, and that it had caused chaos amongst their crew, eventually causing them all to presumably evacuate the ship!”

“That’s what the logs say, but have you noticed anything else? I’ve got a couple things written down here that you seem to have missed.” Mint points to a list of questions she had written on her notes.

  * _Possible alien lifeform, based on short descriptions?_


  * Could be that the lab is what housed the anomaly and something caused it to get out of the crew’s control?



The list continues.

“I had not thought of that, I am sorry.” Lia’s tone diminishes slightly.

“It helps to look deeper into the text and try and decipher it, instead of just writing down what you see.”

“I see, that is helpful, Lieutenant. I will remember it!”

Hazel examines a damaged pillow recovered from the room, noting several burns that seem to be prevalent throughout many of the other items. “They could be from sparks, like an electrical outage or something?”

“I think they might be a bit big for something like that, there could have been a small explosion, probably. But there’s blood on this, too…” Anam replies, looking at a mostly-emptied and slightly damaged plastic water bottle.

Veirence breaks her silence, as she has been occupied in analyzing the sample she collected. “Could I get a second look at this?”

Mint turns toward her in intrigue. “What’s up?” She asks, quickly followed by the other crew members.

“I’m not crazy, right?” Veirence allows Mint to look at the screen. She hasn’t exactly studied this kind of stuff, but Veirence has taught her the basics before, just enough to help her if she needed it.

“DNA: N/A? What the hell does that mean? It’s too old or something?”

“Maybe, but that’s not all, look;” Veirence points at a data entry. “There’s no traces of iron in the blood here. Where there would be, there’s sulfur instead.”

Mint’s brow furrows. “What…?”

“Whatever bled on that ship, it wasn’t from a human, or any terran creature.” Veirence turns toward Anam expectantly. “Cap?”

After a moment of consideration, Anam shakes her head. “I don’t want to dive further into this. We’ve just been through hell and back, I’m not going through it again. IGA want to research this shit and leave giant ships in space, they can do that. Whatever the hell killed that ship, we’re not ready for it. Not in this state, at least.” she heads to the room’s door frame. “We already pushed it by going  _ inside  _ that thing. Let’s count our lucky stars and never return here again.” she looks toward Lia. “Commander, if you’ll take us out, anywhere there’s a repair bay and a place to relax.”

“Aye, Captain.” Lia responds, giving a salute.

The two of them leave to the bridge, and shortly after, the Argo turns away from Dethea and disperses into a streak of light.

**Author's Note:**

> If you really like this series, or just like sharing your creative work on discord, I've made a place for this story here: https://discord.gg/bwtUgEpxYr (just copy and paste the link in your url bar, I can't figure out how to add links on notes.)


End file.
